Select Texas House Panel Chasing Fantasy
that Would Kill Bustling Economy in Hobbs
Capitol Inside
March 27, 2026
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows threw a bone to secessionists at the public's expense on Thursday when he instructed a special committee that he created to study the possibility of making the nation's second largest state even bigger with the addition of two counties in southeast New Mexico.
Such a proposal has zero chance of ever becoming reality for countless reasons that the House leader should already understand as a Lubbock resident without the need to spend taxpayer cash on an interim committee investigation that's exclusively for show - and then some.
The shift of Lea County to Texas, for starters, would destroy the local economy in Hobbs - the seventh largest city in New Mexico and one of the state's most vibrant and prosperous as a result of the Zia Park Casino Hotel and Racetrack and a wildly successful marijuana industry. Hundreds if not thousands of people would be out of work if the casino and dozens of THC dispensaries were forced to close the moment that Lea County became part of West Texas.
Burrows could have saved the state some money if he'd picked up the phone and called former Roswell mayor and state representative Dennis Kintigh to assess the feasibility of the special committee probe designed to determine if growing the Lone Star State is a feasible use of state resources.
"I think secession is a fantasy, a fun fantasy," Kintigh told the Santa Fe New Mexican last month. But "Santa Fe would never let southeast New Mexico go. Southeast New Mexico is like a Third World colony to Santa Fe. They want the money that southeast New Mexico generates."
But Burrows and the Republicans in West Texas would love to get their hands on that same cash as well. The speaker assigned the task of chasing the impossible dream to a new Select Committee on Governmental Oversight that he hatched this week along with a Select Committee on Health Care Affordability and a Select Committee on General Aviation that aim to spur economic development in rural areas.
Instead of appointing a lawmaker from West Texas with local expertise on southeast New Mexico, Burrows appointed a lawmaker from the coast - GOP State Rep. Cody Vasut of Angleton - to chair the special panel that will look into acquiring Lea and Roosevelt counties.
The speaker didn't indicate whether he was aware of the dramatic cultural differences between West Texas communities that have been shrinking and Hobbs - which had been a dying town as well for a half-century before giving birth to the current casino in 2004. The population spiked nearly 20 percent in the 2010 census before growing almost 20 percent more over the course of the next 10 years.
The Hobbs casino is one of the few in New Mexico that isn't controlled by Native Americans. Zia Park is owned by Penn Entertainment, which has more than 40 gambling emporiums in 20 states. As long as Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is in office, the bustling Hobbs casino would be an illegal operation if Lea County bolted from the Land of Enchantment and joined the Lone Star State.
But the legalization of marijuana for adult use in New Mexico has been an even bigger boon for the economy in Hobbs and the surrounding areas than the casino - with three or four dozen dispensaries sprouting up there in less than four years. Hobbs has mushroomed almost overnight into a THC industry mecca as the closest place most Texans can go to get premium THC products that aren't legal in Texas. Hobbs, with a population of 45,000 or so, has ranked third in the state in total marijuana sales behind Albuquerque and Sunland Park outside the El Paso and Las Cruces areas since adult use became legal in 2022.
Burrows apparently got the idea for annexing parts of southeast New Mexico from a pair of fellow Republicans in the Legislature there. These visionaries - State Rep. Randall Pettigrew of Lovington and Jimmy Mason of Artesia - filed legislation earlier this year that would give local voters in counties on the Texas border the option to secede from New Mexico.
Pettigrew says he knew that the constitutional amendment the two proposed would never get a hearing or a vote in a committee. The Lea County lawmaker also
admitted that he and his co-sponsor never discussed the proposal with local officials in the areas that would be affected by it. So it was purely for show amid the realization that Democrats in Santa Fe wouldn't agree to spend a dime on such a notion.
The new Burrows committee could try to determine how much it would cost the public and private sectors all across the world to replace every map that has Texas or New Mexico or both on it. The answer to that question would explain why nothing like this has been done in the U.S. in modern times.
"Southeast New Mexico deserves a real voice in its own future, not one dictated by Santa Fe. It's a conservative, energy-rich region with a fierce independence streak, and West Texas has shown what's possible when you respect oil and gas, protect property rights, and trust local communities," the Texas speaker said in a statement that was post on X.
Here's the instruction to the new committee that he has a lawmaker from the Texas coast leading.
"Texas-New Mexico Boundary: Study the constitutional, statutory, fiscal, and economic implications of adding to Texas one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico. Provide a detailed analysis of pertinent provisions of the United States Constitution, the Texas Constitution, the New Mexico Constitution, relevant federal and state statutes, and applicable judicial precedent. Identify and outline all procedural steps required at both the state and federal level necessary to admit territory currently part of New Mexico into Texas. Recommend drafts of any requisite legislation or resolutions to initiate the process."
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