TCU Hosts Texas Tribune Panel Conversation on 2027 Legislative Agenda

TCU Hosts Texas Tribune Panel Conversation on 2027 Legislative Agenda TCU Hosts Texas Tribune Panel Conversation on 2027 Legislative Agenda October 09, 2026 Share Share Icon Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn With the 2027 Texas legislative session quickly approaching, TCU welcomed The Texas Tribune, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and a panel of current and former state lawmakers for two conversations about upcoming legislative priorities. The event, presented by the Episcopal Health Foundation and moderated by Tribune editor-in-chief Matthew Watkins, drew elected officials, community leaders and TCU students to campus Oct. 7. Over two panels, speakers returned again and again to one question: How can Fort Worth and the state work together on the issues Texans feel most in their daily lives? Chancellor Daniel W. Pullin opened the morning by pointing to the partnership between the university and the city it has called home for more than a century. “I can’t point to a more productive, constructive, collaborative town and gown relationship than what we enjoy right here at Texas Christian University and the city of Fort Worth,” Pullin said. “What’s been good for Fort Worth has been good for TCU, and vice versa.” Pullin said universities have a responsibility to host conversations like this one. “I think we have the obligation to host them here, where we bring different types of people with different lived experiences together, different perspectives to challenge the status quo and see if we can make tomorrow even better,” he said. Lawmakers Look Ahead The first panel featured State Rep. Nicole Collier; former State Rep. Jason Villalba, chair and CEO of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation; and Tribune reporter Renzo Downey. The group discussed the political landscape heading into the session and the policy debates likely to define it, with property taxes and data centers at the top of the list. Villalba said property taxes will remain a priority because the issue matters to voters in both parties. Panelists also agreed the state needs clear rules on how data centers use water and power. Collier said residents have real questions about how the facilities affect their communities and deserve clear information. “These are things that people want to know, and it’s about educating,” she said. The data center discussion carried into the second conversation when Parker took the stage. Parker Makes the Case for Fort Worth In her conversation with Watkins, Parker said Fort Worth needs to do a better job telling its story to state leaders, from its rapid growth to the areas where it needs help. “Who is Fort Worth, Texas, and what are we doing as a city that you, even if you don’t live here, as a statewide leader would be proud of?” Parker said. TCU came up often as Parker described the city’s work. A commission chaired by Mike Slattery, director of TCU’s Institute of Environmental Studies, is preparing recommendations on data centers for the Fort Worth City Council to consider before the session begins. “Special thanks to TCU and Dr. Mike Slattery,” Parker said. “He put community members on this commission with him in hopes they can make recommendations to the council sometime in November.” She also pointed to TCU’s film program as part of the workforce behind the city’s growing film and television industry and credited the university as an early partner in the North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator, a regional effort to improve outcomes for mothers and babies and  “This university was the first partner to say whatever it takes,” Parker said of the maternal health work. Asked what she would accomplish in the session if she could pick one thing, Parker chose maternal health. She closed with a call for lawmakers to return to the kind of bipartisan consensus-building she saw as a legislative staffer earlier in her career. “We are the eighth-largest economy in the world. We should act like it,” Parker said. “We should come up with really big solutions that work for all Texans.”