Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope to Meet With Gov. Abbott Thursday
Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope will meet with Governor Greg Abbott Thursday, along with the mayors of Amarillo and El Paso.
Last week, mayors of 18 Texas cities signed a letter addressed to Governor Greg Abbott requesting a meeting with the governor. Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope, along with the other mayors, are at odds with the governor over property tax reform and other issues they believe the state is overreaching on. The letter claimed that some of Gov. Abbott's proposals in the special session would harm cities.
To prepare for this rapid growth, we must continue to have the tools to manage our budgets, improve infrastructure, provide critical services like public safety and pass policies reflective of local resident priorities. Harmful proposals such as revenue and spending caps, limiting annexation authority and other measures preempting local development ordinances that directly harm our ability to plan for future growth and continue to serve as the economic engines of Texas.
Monday on The Chad Hasty Show, Governor Abbott was asked about the letter and the Governor responded that his office had invited the Lubbock Mayor and other mayors to attend a meeting.
While Mayor Dan Pope is getting a meeting with Abbott, that isn't the case for all the mayors who signed the letter.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, the governor will meet with the mayors of Corpus Christi, Galveston, and San Marcos on Wednesday; the mayors of Lubbock, Amarillo, and El Paso on Thursday; and next week, he will meet with the mayors of Arlington, Frisco, Irving, and McKinney.
Left out of any meetings so far are the mayors of Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. According to the Statesman, a spokesman for the Austin mayor questioned why the Governor wasn't meeting with mayors of the largest cities.
“Austin and Texas’ biggest cities are where Texas’ economy is growing fastest,” Adler’s spokesman Jason Stanford said. “If you hurt these cities, Texas bleeds. By refusing even to meet with these mayors, the governor is cutting off his nose to spite his face.”
The Lubbock City Council is scheduled to meet on Thursday, July 27. It is not yet known whether Mayor Dan Pope will be back in Lubbock for that meeting.