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McALLEN — The power of the chorus. That’s a large part of what brought Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to the Rio Grande Valley as mayors from Brownsville to San Antonio — and everywhere in between — met here Tuesday afternoon.
It was all part of a day-long meeting of the South Texas Alliance of Cities, or STAC, the still-growing nonpartisan organization where mayors from across South Texas have joined forces to speak of the region’s needs and its strengths with a unified voice.
Tuesday’s quarterly meeting, which was attended by some of the highest leaders in the state, and was capped off by a fireside chat with the governor, illustrates how powerful that regional voice has become, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said.
“I think the governor recognized how important it is when communities work together,” Villalobos said.
“I mean, it was incredible what happened here today,” the mayor added, noting that the directors for the Texas Department of Emergency Management, the Texas Water Development Board, TxDOT, the Texas Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and others also attended.
For Brownsville Mayor John Cowen, the Valley’s ability to draw such powerful leaders to sit down with local leaders is a sign of the region’s growing strength.
“I think it sends a powerful message that we’re able to get the attention of our state in a real way. Before this, when everyone was speaking individually as a city, it’s hard to get traction,” Cowen said.
“It shows that we have political muscle now that we can use,” he added.
The Brownsville mayor hopes that political capital will come in handy as Valley cities continue to face growing challenges, including continued water scarcity and the need for increased investment in economic development.
Gov. Abbott touched on those two topics during the fireside chat, which Villalobos moderated.
Abbott spoke with evident pride about Texas’ reputation as a business-friendly state — of how “Texas moves at the speed of business.”
He pointed to the so-called “gigafactory” that Tesla built in Austin to manufacture its Model Y cars.
Tesla constructed the factory in less than 18 months — faster than the company would have been able to secure construction permits had it attempted to build the facility in California.
That “speed of business” soon prompted Tesla founder and tech billionaire Elon Musk to relocate the headquarters of his other companies to the Lone Star State.
The success of tech companies like Tesla and Texas Instruments has reaped positive “ancillary” dividends for the communities surrounding them, the governor said.
And for him, the current rate of the Valley’s growth is beginning to paint a similar picture.
While cities like Brownsville and McAllen benefit directly from companies like SpaceX, or the expansion of international ports of entry, it’s the surrounding cities that are being primed to also reap benefits, Abbott said.
“The growth you see … the economic horizons that you all are at the beginning of, is just getting going,” Abbott said.
“If you’re from a county near here, you’re gonna be in a rapid growth in the future,” he added a few moments later.
And the state intends to help. Already, state lawmakers are planning to pave the way for additional avenues for funding economic incentives, including tax abatements.
That includes new legislation via the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act.
“Any type of project that falls within those broad categories are projects that we are now providing economic incentives for through property tax abatements,” Abbott said.
But the governor is also looking to leverage the state’s mammoth power to address another pressing concern — water scarcity.
Abbott said water is fast becoming a critical issue not just in the Rio Grande Valley, which is heavily dependent on Mexican water deliveries, but across the entire state.
He hopes to create a “generational” approach to water scarcity via tools such as the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas, or SWIFT program, which will inject more than $11.5 billion in investment capital for water infrastructure projects.
And additional legislation will be on the way in the 2025 legislative session, the governor said.
“We’re working on plans to ensure that we will be ‘water plenty’ way past 2050,” Abbott said.
But more to the point locally, Abbott acknowledged the uniqueness of the Valley’s water supply issues.
“If I were president, one of the first things I would do would be to order Mexico, ‘You have to comply with the water treaty that we entered into last century!’ to make sure that Texans in the RGV gets (sic) the water they need,” Abbott said with emphasis.
Currently, Mexico is in arrears by approximately four years’ worth of water, according to the terms of a 1944 water sharing treaty with the United States.
But even if Mexico released every last drop it has stored in its inland reservoirs, it wouldn’t be able to satisfy the water debt.
Barring a deluge from a tropical weather system, Mexico no longer has the volumes of water necessary to meet its treaty obligations by nxt October’s deadline.
Nonetheless, the Valley’s leaders expressed their optimism at the region’s future, especially as the STAC continues to draw new membership.
Not only did mayors from South Texas’ largest cities attend, but so, too, did a a number of mayors from smaller and more rural communities.
Several founding members attended, including Villalobos, the McAllen mayor, Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr., who currently chairs the STAC, Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza, Cowen, the Brownsville mayor, and Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda.
So, too, did Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño and former San Antonio Councilwoman Rebecca J. Viagran, who attended on behalf of San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
Also in attendance were the mayors of Edcouch, Premont and Alice.
“Together, we can advocate for our region,” Garza, the Edinburg mayor, said, highlighting the attention the STAC has received, including an invitation to the White House earlier this year from President Joe Biden.
“We have our challenges, right, but there’s also a lot of opportunities. … That’s what this is about and I’m really happy how it’s come together, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Garza said.
