Texas Urges Court to Reject Cities' Challenge of 2019 ROW Law

Cities want a state court to concoct a constitutional reason to reject a 2019 Texas right-of-way (ROW) law, the state replied Friday at the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals (case 03-22-00524-CV). McAllen and other Texas cities are challenging a 2019 law that stopped municipalities from charging telecom providers twice when they use the ROW for phone and video (see 2301270028 and 2302100065). Cities ask the court to "create a new constitutional doctrine requiring each individual or business to pay a separate fee for each individual use of the ROW," without "any guidance of how this new doctrine could practically operate," Texas said. "In practice, it would be a way for future litigants to sue to block any government program they do not like by arguing somebody somewhere is getting some 'thing of value' without paying for it." Cities conceded in a previous brief that they have no authority explaining why the legislature lacked discretion to require one ROW fee to an affiliated group, said Texas: Now they "argue that because there traditionally was a separate ROW fee for phone service and a separate ROW fee for cable service, there is somehow now a constitutional requirement to continue paying each of those fees separately.”