ALERT: New Open Meetings Act Notice Deadline
Once upon a time, municipalities and other entities subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act (the “Act”) were required to post notice of their meetings seventy-two (72) hours prior to the date and time of the actual meeting. This meant that an entity with regularly scheduled Monday night meetings would be perfectly in compliance with the Act if it posted its meeting notice prior to the end of business day the Friday before the meeting. Effective September 1 of this year, Friday meeting notices for Monday meetings will no longer comply with the Act, and entities will need to post their notices sooner.
Champions for this bill made municipalities out to be bad guys thwarting transparency and hiding information. According to the legislative record, “the author [of the bill] discovered that the City of Smithville used this language [the required 72 hours’ notice] to its advantage to post notice late on a Friday afternoon for a Monday meeting to adopt a budget that relied on unsubstantiated tax hikes to meet the inflated budget. The author upon further investigation into other cities, found similar instances along with a lack of public posting of proposed budgets and tax rates.” C.S.H.B. 1522 Bill Analysis Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee Report. The bill’s author went on to say in his statement of intent, “Bad actors in local government can take, and in the past have taken, advantage of the open-ended wording surrounding the laws pertaining to local government postings. This allows local government to make postings late Friday for a Monday hearing and withhold important information from the public to keep them unprepared and in the date about relevant meeting information.”
HB 1522 amends Texas Government Code Chapter 551.043(a) to require that a governmental body must post notice of any meeting at least THREE (3) BUSINESS DAYS prior to the meeting, rather than the previously acceptable 72 hours’ notice requirement. This means that notice of a Monday night meeting must be posted by the end of the business day on the Wednesday prior to the meeting. Governmental entities will need to get organized earlier and think further ahead about their agendas.
HB 1522 also creates additional notice requirements for meetings at which a governmental body will discuss or adopt a budget. First, the entity must post a physical copy of the budget. Sec. 551.043(c)(1). In the alternative, the entity must post the budget on its accessible website. Id. Second, the entity must provide a “taxpayer impact statement” indicating the current property tax for a median-valued homestead property compared to estimated property tax bill if the proposed budget is adopted, and for a taxing unit, a balance budge funded at the no-new-revenue tax rate. Sec. 551.043(c)(2).
Setting aside the bill proponents’ allegations of wrongdoing, these bill changes provide an opportunity for governmental entities to plan further ahead, as well as give city councilmembers, board members, and commissioners more time to review and prepare for critical meetings. Finally, and most importantly, the additional time will provide greater transparency and opportunity for community members to meaningfully interact with their local governmental entities.
HB 1522 takes effect on September 1, 2025, so there is plenty of time to prepare and acclimate to these new changes.
Please do not rely on this article as legal advice. We can tell you what the law is, but until we know the facts of your given situation, we cannot provide legal guidance. This website is for informational purposes and not for the purposes of providing legal advice.
