The July 25, 2025 issue of Progress Times has a couple of significant stories. The first is about the creation of emergency services districts in western Hidalgo County. The second story is about redistricting.
New Emergency Services Districts
The Hidalgo County Commissioner's Court has appointed nine people to serve on the two newly created emergency services districts, ESD 5 and ESD 6, in Precinct 3. The districts were created by voter approval in an election in May 2025. These districts were created to pay for emergency response services. Unlike other county precincts, Precinct 3 has not had emergency service districts. The area has been relying on emergency services provided by other political entities.
To pay for the services, these districts are authorized to tax up to $0.10 per $100 of property valuation.
The areas covered by ESD 5 and ESD 6 include the City of Alton and extraterritorial jurisdictions for the cities of La Joya, Mission, and Palmhurst. The focus of ESD 5 is emergency medical service. ESD 6 will provide fire suppression service, which is important given the prevalence of brush fires during dry seasons.
As of publication of the story, Hidalgo County had sought people who were interested in serving on the boards for these new districts and made appointments based on interest and recommendations.
Congressional Redistricting
Congressional redistricting typically occurs after a census. While uncommon, it is not completely unheard of for congressional districts to be redrawn in-between census periods. Efforts to redraw congressional districts prior to 2013 would have required preclearance by the US Department of Justice as stipulated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The US Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Act in Shelby County v Holder. Until then, redistricting largely favored the Democrat party as their districts could only increase in the number of minorities within the district, but never decrease. Therefore, districts tended to be gerrymandered to create Democrat safe districts in which no Republican challenger could hope to win an election. This often resulted in an overrepresentation of Democrat representatives in Congress when compared to the overall percentage of Democrat voters in the State of Texas (and other states listed in the Voting Rights Act of 1965).
Without preclearance requirements, Texas is now able to redraw districts that are more representative of the voting population. The concern of many Texas Democrats is that the new districts will be drawn to make Republican candidates more competitive in areas that have been Democrat strongholds for decades. Congressional districts are drawn by each individual state legislature. Given that Texas has a Republican majority in the Texas Legislature, it makes sense to align congressional districts with the political reality to avoid having the State of Texas and its congressional representatives working at cross purposes.
Story: https://www.progresstimes.net/2025/07/28/texas-redraws-congressional-lines-rgv-may-squeak-by/