Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Waco Bridge’s June 27 newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter, which keeps readers caught up on Waco news and information.
It didn’t take long for decisions in this year’s session of the Texas Legislature to ripple up the I-35 corridor to Waco.
State and local leaders at a Waco Bridge event Wednesday dissected and sometimes debated new state laws affecting everything from Waco schools to local water planning and mental health resources.
A crowd of about 160 gathered at the “Texas Decisions, Waco Impact” event at McLennan Community College, hosted by The Waco Bridge.
State Rep. Pat Curry, R–Waco, was joined by McLennan County Judge Scott Felton, Waco Mayor Jim Holmes, and Waco ISD Superintendent Tiffany T. Spicer for the policy discussion.
You can watch a video of the event here.
Here are some highlights from those discussions:
1) Curry bullish on mental health
In an on-stage interview with Bridge Editor-in-Chief J.B. Smith, Curry recalled his first conversation as freshman state rep with House Speaker Dustin Burrows.
“He asked me what my No. 1 priority was, and I told him mental health,” he said.
Curry championed a provision in Senate Bill 1 that provides $5 million over the next two years to the Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network diversion center, allowing it to be open for mental health crises 24/7. (Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network’s diversion center has already staffed up to operate around the clock even before the new funding.)
Curry said other funding will support a study for a new psychiatric hospital in Waco. DePaul Center at Ascension Providence, a psychiatric hospital in the region, closed in late 2023. Oceans Behavioral Hospital remains after the closure of DePaul, but local mental health officials say its capacity cannot meet all local needs.
“Right now, the jail is our mental health facility, which is just sad,” Curry said at the event.
Mayor Holmes and Judge Felton shared Curry’s urgency on the need to replace DePaul.
2) McLennan, Bell team for long-term water
Rep. Curry told the crowd and his colleagues that he “got into this because of water.”
Curry’s House bill 3830 won support from the city of Waco and agriculture lobby for its efforts to give dairy farmers upstream of Lake Waco tax credits to remove manure from the watershed. That effort made it out of committee but not to the House floor.
More successful was Curry-backed Senate Bill 1194, which establishes a new multi-county water authority called the Central Texas Water Alliance. Led by Bell and McLennan counties, the alliance has bonding capacity and eminent domain authority.
Felton said the alliance could ultimately build pipelines bringing water to this region from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer in East Texas.
“For us to really be prepared for decades to come, we really need to bring in water from an outside source,” Felton said. He said the infrastructure to transport the water won’t come cheap, but it’s crucial for future industrial growth.
3) Waco ISD’s Spicer: Give us a “fair playing field”
The Waco ISD superintendent expressed numerous concerns with the impact of the 2025 legislative session on the county’s largest public school district and its approximately 14,500 students.
Spicer said the $8.5 billion state funding increase for public schools is welcome, but it will pressure districts to pay more out of pocket for teacher categories that don’t qualify for the raises specified in the bill.
Other laws, such as requiring teaching credentials for all Texas public educators within the next three years, burden public schools, she said. Meanwhile, private schools will soon get to accept publicly funded vouchers without accountability measures such as standardized tests.
“Private doesn’t need to play by these rules,” she said, pleading for legislators to provide a “fair playing field” for public schools.
Rep. Curry maintained his support Wednesday for vouchers, but said their impact on Waco schools will likely be minimal, given that the $1 billion set aside for the program would fund 100,000 vouchers at most.
4) Locals push back on ISD partisanship
Waco leaders praised Curry for being accessible and willing to work with them. But during an audience question-answer session, they panned a bill Curry filed that would have made school board elections partisan.
Curry said the bill, which died in committee, was meant to draw attention to low voter turnout in local May elections.
“Some of the bills I file are to start a conversation,” Curry said.
Spicer said she was in “total disagreement” with the premise of Curry’s school board bill because it makes “school about politics. … That’s not what our kids are there for; that’s not what our board is there for.”
Mayor Holmes agreed school and city government should be nonpartisan: “I’m gonna have to agree with Dr. Spicer about this.”
Felton, who presides over a commissioners court of fellow Republicans, offered this terse take: “I would never file a bill to start a conversation.”
5) TSTC endowment is on the ballot in November
Proposition 1 on the November ballot would amend the Texas Constitution to establish a permanent $850 million endowment fund for the Waco-based Texas State Technical College. That would allow TSTC a stable funding stream to expand and upgrade campus facilities, particularly those contributing to the state’s skilled workforce development goals.
“TSTC is critical for us to continue to develop a skilled workforce,” Felton said. “A skilled workforce is one of the limiting factors for industrial growth in our area.”
Disclosure: McLennan Community College and Texas State Technical College are financial contributors to The Waco Bridge.
