Texans can vote for politicians, but have little or no voice in where they live - a city or the county. A city can - in Texas - decide to annex a chunk of county land and those living there along with it - without asking. We're one of the few states where cities can do that.
       Last Thursday, St. Patrick's Day, Texans who want to change the way cities grow and presume to "govern without the consent of the governed" showed up in Austin. They came to testify for House Bill (HB) 323. The bill, if it passes and becomes law, would give county residents the right to vote on whether or not they want to be annexed by a nearby city. Not surprisingly, a busload from Tarrant County were on hand to plead for their right to vote on where, and how, they choose to live. 
       "Texans deserve the right to vote [on annexation]," said Darlia Hobbs, President of Citizens Against Forced Annexation (CAFA). Hobbs organized the trip to Austin for CAFA members and interested county residents hoping to make their voices heard loud and clear.
       "We weren't alone," Hobbs said. "We heard many other Texan voice similar opinions, such as, 'Our military is fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to give those people the right to vote - yet we're denied the right to vote on where we live.'"
       HB323 was drafted and introduced by State Representative Anna Mowery of Fort Worth. She is chairman of the Land and Resource Management Committee that heard testimony not only on her bill, but several other bills as well.
       Not all of those who testified before her committee were county residents fighting for their freedom from various cities' annexation schemes, said Hobbs. Some were there to encourage support of HB1728, authored by State Representative David Leibowitz of San Antonio. His bill would simplify the disannexation process when cities fail to provide adequate fire, police and ambulance services, or water and sewer services as required by law - even after years of paying the city's taxes.
       "Kathleen Wood, Vice-president of CAFA, lives on Eagle Mountain Lake in the Fort Worth Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ)," Hobbs said. "She told the committee about property she owns inside the Fort Worth city limits that, after 20 years of paying taxes, still does not have city water and sewer."
       Wood has gone before the Fort Worth City Council numerous times about many other areas inside the city limits where residents have paid taxes for years but don't have water, sewer, or even paved streets, much less curbs and gutters and drainage, Hobbs said. HB1728 would give such areas the opportunity to become disannexed from the city.
       Defending cities' rights to annex county residents, were representatives from several cities including San Antonio, Benbrook, Denton and Crowley, as well a lobbyist from the Texas Municipal League (TML). Cities, they argued, need to expand to increase their tax base and add zoning controls to growth. Annexation also prevents a city from becoming "landlocked" - completely surrounded by incorporated communities.
       John Goodson wrote a Session Focus in 1997 for the Texas House of Representatives' House Research Organization. In it, he noted that, before 1912, any annexation by a city required approval of the Legislature.
       "In 1912, Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment, Tex. Const. Art. XI, sec. 5, allowing cities with more than 5,000 residents to form a home rule city. When a city becomes a home rule city it gains the power to take any action that is not in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the state.
       "One of the broadest powers granted to a home rule city is the power to annex unincorporated areas. Today virtually all home rule cities and hundreds of general law cities have unilateral authority to annex - without the consent of those who live in the area to be annexed.
       "In 1963 the Legislature enacted the Municipal Annexation Act, now codified as Chapter 43, Tex. Loc. Gov't Code, which set certain limits on all annexations. The Municipal Annexation Act established the concept of extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). An ETJ is the area of land extending beyond the city limits over which the city maintains some control. It can be as little as half a mile beyond the city limits for small cities and as large as five miles for cities with more than 100,000 residents. When a city annexes additional areas, its ETJ is also extended. A city's annexation authority is limited to the area within its ETJ."
       The amendment passed in 1912 has become a misused tool. CAFA's witnesses told the committee that most states do not have a provision for "forced" annexation.
       "We wouldn't think of annexing new neighborhoods," said Colorado Springs, Colo.  Councilwoman Margaret Radford, "with or without their permission. Those residents spend their money here, we get the benefit of their sales tax dollars, and we don't have to provide them any services. Why would Texas have such a law?"
       The State of Virginia has no annexation policy, since it would take land and resources away from its counties. Nationwide, most "forced annexation" issues are those initiated by isolated communities attempting to force a nearby city to annex them and provide services. Such is not the case in much of Texas.
       "Fort Worth's new 'city-initiated annexation' plan has targeted 31 areas to be considered for annexation in the next five years, contrary to the wishes of most of the residents," said Hobbs. "Even though in the last city election (2003), the majority of the candidates - both incumbents and challengers - said they were 'against forced annexation.'"
       Fort Worth's city-initiated annexation plan is not a law or in any way binding on the City Council. It is a plan on how future growth could be accomplished. Nevertheless, it still prevents those in the targeted areas to have any voice in the annexation decision - a violation of our basic rights as Americans.
       Over 200 years ago, a couple of well-intentioned men wrote:
       "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
The document continues:
       "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
       From the consent of the governed. Forced annexation, city-initiated annexation, whatever guise this confiscation of personal property and resources wears, it provides no opportunity for the people to give their consent, and is both unfair and unjust.
       Mowery's HB323 is still pending before the committee. Leibowitz's HB1728 was approved by the committee and sent to the Calendars Committee for a date to be heard by the full House.
       Special thanks to Darlia Hobbs for her significant contribution to this article.