Governor Greg Abbott made a bold claim this week that should catch the attention of Texans from the plains of the Panhandle to the shores of the Gulf Coast. Responding to water challenges in Corpus Christi, the governor said the state may “take over and micromanage” the city’s operations to correct the situation. That ought to stop Texans cold.
For most of our state’s history, Texans have believed deeply in the principle of local control — the idea that the government closest to the people governs best. That belief is part of our heritage, defined by independence and a healthy skepticism of centralized power. When Texans wrote the Constitution of 1876, they deliberately designed a decentralized system of government. Delegates repeatedly emphasized keeping political power as close to the people as possible — a philosophy that shaped Texas government for generations.
Texas has more than 5,000 local government entities — counties, cities, school districts, hospital districts, water districts, and emergency service districts. We have 254 counties, more than any other state. Early lawmakers deliberately created smaller counties so citizens could reach their courthouse within a day’s ride by horse or wagon. Government was meant to be close to the people it served.
That philosophy extends to how our taxing system works. Cities and counties collect property taxes to fund services people rely on every day — police and fire protection, roads, water systems, rural hospitals, and emergency services. Meanwhile, the state is responsible for the larger systems connecting Texas as a whole: highways, public education, statewide water programs, and rural healthcare.
But here’s what Austin doesn’t want you to hear. In the areas where we rely on state funding, there is a growing disconnect between what Texans value and what actually gets funded. Despite adequate surplus revenues, the state still shifts education costs onto local property taxpayers. Water infrastructure needs grow as drought intensifies. Rural hospitals close. Counties and cities are left covering services the state should support — often through unfunded mandates — with little to nothing from state coffers.
And now state leaders are pushing to eliminate property taxes completely. That may sound appealing politically, but property taxes are the primary funding source for local government. Police departments, fire protection, water systems, hospital districts, and emergency services all depend on those dollars. Eliminate that funding and communities become dependent on Austin — where funding decisions are shaped by politics, influence, and competing interests.
Large urban regions, powerful industries, and well-funded advocacy groups all compete for state resources. Rural Texas doesn’t have armies of lobbyists or billion-dollar donors fighting for our communities. What rural Texas has traditionally had instead is local control — the ability to raise and spend our own dollars to meet our own needs.
As Texas becomes more urban, rural political power naturally shrinks. Local control has been the one place where rural communities could still call their own shots. When that independence disappears, rural communities risk becoming dependent on decisions made far away, in political battles where we have far less influence. And history shows that when resources are scarce and politics decide where the money goes, smaller and less powerful communities are often left waiting.
That is why the comments about Corpus Christi matter far beyond one city’s water challenges. Communities like Spearman, Stratford, Dublin, Whitesboro — and towns like Crockett in East Texas or Devine in South Texas — rely on local leadership to solve problems that Austin may never fully understand. Volunteer fire departments, hospital districts, water systems, and local economic development efforts depend on leaders who live in those communities and answer directly to the people they serve.
Local government is not perfect. No level of government is. But it remains the most directly accountable level of government we have. For generations, Texans believed power should remain close to the people affected by it.
Now many communities are beginning to ask a simple question: If Austin doesn’t trust our communities to govern ourselves, who exactly does it believe should be in charge of rural Texas?
Because once decisions move farther away from the people who live with them, local control is no longer a principle. It’s just a slogan.
Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers and the Texas Rural Reporter. You can subscribe to the newsletter at www.TexasRuralReporter.Substack.com