Cities and local governments are the governments closest to the people - providing services to citizens, such as police and fire protection, emergency medical services, streets and traffic management, solid waste services, water and wastewater treatment, stormwater management, parks and recreation centers, animal control, and a host of other services that help to maintain a community and its quality of life. The Texas Legislature has the power to touch every aspect of city government, in both positive and negative ways. As such, the City has developed a legislative program that aims to protect and enhance the City’s ability to provide quality services and programs and ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the public by actively participating in the legislative process.

Accordingly, as part of the City's Intergovernmental Relations program, the City has prepared a Legislative Agenda for the 87th Session of the Texas Legislature, which will begin in January 2021. The purpose of the Legislative Agenda is to provide state elected leaders with the City Council's position on legislative topics that will be discussed and debated during the 2021-2022 biennium. The Legislative Agenda also provides direction to City Intergovernmental Relations staff on which issues to monitor and how to respond to proposed legislation that could impact the City – all with the goal of ensuring the City is able to pursue and implement the priorities of Sugar Land residents. As such, the 2021 State Legislative Agenda focuses on several key priorities, including:

• Supporting legislation that allows for locally elected officials to make decisions that are beneficial to the interests of City residents;
• Opposing legislation that is detrimental to the City’s ability to pursue citizen priorities or respond to local citizen concerns; and
• Supporting legislation that reduces the overall tax burden on residents and businesses without reducing vital funding for critical public safety services and other services on which residents depend on and expect.
  
  

In preparation for the 87th State Legislative Session, the City Manager created the 2020 City Manager's Legislative Task Force (LTF) to provide a valuable public engagement component to the creation of the legislative agenda. The LTF is a special 7 member ad-hoc panel created by the City Manager to provide community insight into legislative issues. The LTF was comprised of active citizens in the community who currently serve on a City of Sugar Land board or commission. The LTF met on August 5, 6, and 12 to discuss issues related to municipal advocacy, municipal finance, and land use and regulation. The Office of Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) provided the IG Committee with a summary of the LTF meetings as well as a draft copy of the legislative agenda on September 15, 2020.

The IGR Office presented City Council with a Draft 2021 Legislative Agenda on September 22, 2020. The City Council recommended that the 2021 Legislative Agenda be brought to City Council in October for adoption.