By Ray Jeffrey
Bulverde Mayor

It’s time for straight talk on home rule for the city of Bulverde. 

Approval of home rule will allow our young city to grow and succeed. Rejection of home rule will cause stagnation. 

The folks who currently live in the city are the voters on this important issue.  I can assure the voters that there is no downside to approving home rule. 

The opposition to home rule has come primarily from non-voters - land owners outside the city who are concerned that someday their land might be brought into the city.

They want unrestricted development of their land and do not want to pay even the very low property taxes paid by our city residents. 

They do not hesitate to spread disinformation about the effects of home rule, including the blatant falsehood that voters will suffer an increase in taxes as a result of home rule.

By now, every voter in our city has received in the mail a copy of the proposed Home-Rule Charter. Simply stated, the charter is our constitution. 

It is similar to the charters of cities all over Texas. Virtually every Texas city which has grown large enough to qualify, has adopted home rule. 

The simple reason for this approval rate is the fact that home rule provides a community with greater ability to be flexible and proactive, with no harm to its citizens.

If you take a moment to look at a map of Bulverde’s city boundaries, you probably will be amazed. You can find a map of the city on the city’s Web site at www.ci.bulverde. tx.us.   

The usual reaction of citizens who see a city map is to say, “That’s crazy! Who came up with that?” 

This is a result of the hasty way in which the city was patched together to keep from being gobbled up by San Antonio.

Most of the territory people think of as Bulverde is not actually in the city. Many residents and business owners come to the city for assistance with important matters, but we cannot help them because they are outside of the city limits.  

Most of our schools are not in the city.  Even our city park falls outside the city limits; we have to rent it from the county. 

Under our current form of government, which is reserved for the tiniest of communities, we have no ability to grow and consolidate our boundaries in a deliberate, common sense fashion. Left as it is, our city will strangle under the pressure of unbridled growth.

Bulverde voters may e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call me at (210) 724-7282 if you need more information to decide on this important vote.