Updated at 3:58 p.m.: Revised to include comment from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

AUSTIN — A North Texas lawmaker wants cities to find another way to foot the bill for removing their Confederate monuments.

Pat Fallon, a Prosper Republican who will be sworn into the Texas Senate in January, filed Senate Bill 226 on Friday. The legislation would prohibit the use of taxpayer money to remove, relocate or alter any statue, portrait, plaque, seal or symbol or to rename any building, bridge, park, area or street "that honors an event or person of historical significance."

While the bill would apply to nearly any historical marker, Fallon said he was spurred to file it after the city of Dallas removed a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park in Oak Lawn last year. The city also renamed Lee Park with its pre-1936 moniker: Oak Lawn Park.

The changes, which were approved by the City Council, were estimated to cost at least $450,000.

"It was an absolutely egregious waste of money," Fallon told The Dallas Morning News Tuesday.

A Massachusetts native who grew up seeing monuments to the Union side of the Civil War, Fallon insisted he's not supporting the concepts espoused by the Confederacy by filing this bill and said he'd be in favor of adding context to memorials whose messages are "inconsistent with our values."

"That's the ugliest portion of American history. I don't want to wash it away," Fallon said. "Our young people are woefully, unfortunately, in many instances, unaware of our history and where we came from."

But the Rev. Michael Waters, a leading advocate for the removal of Confederate monuments, said bills like this allow mistruths about the Civil War to be propagated in the public mind.

"There are so many who are unfortunately attempting to rewrite history," Waters, who founded the Joy Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Dallas, said Tuesday. "Instead of having the courage to bring down these monuments to white supremacy, lawmakers — some lawmakers — are willing to protect white supremacy at all costs."

1 / 7The Confederate War Memorial at Pioneer Park Cemetery in Dallas (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 2 / 7An empty pedestal remains along with barricades at the site where the statue of Confederate general of Robert E. Lee used to stand in Robert E. Lee Park in the Oak Lawn neighborhood of Dallas Friday September 15, 2017. The statue was remove the evening before after the Dallas city council voted 13-1 to remove the statue. (Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News)(Andy Jacobsohn / Staff Photographer) 3 / 7In this Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, photo, a Confederate plaque is displayed near the Rotunda in the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. The Civil War lessons taught to American students often depend on where the classroom is, with schools presenting accounts of the conflict that vary from state to state and even district to district. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) INFORMATION ADDED -- September 19, 2017 Texas House Speaker calls for Confederate plaque's removal from Capitol Joe Straus, the Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, on Tuesday called for an increasingly divisive Confederate plaque to be removed from the state Capitol building. "The plaque says that the Civil War was not an act of rebellion and was not primarily about slavery. This is not accurate, and Texans are not well-served by incorrect information about our history," Straus, R-San Antonio, wrote to the State Preservation Board. "Those of us who serve on the State Preservation Board should direct staff to identify the steps necessary to remove this plaque as soon as practicable." Children of the Confederacy Creed (Eric Gay / AP) 4 / 7The Confederate Soldiers Monument outside the Texas state capitol on Thursday, February 26, 2015 in Austin, Texas. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 5 / 7Tourists stride across the floor of the Capitol rotunda in Austin on Thursday, June 9, 2016. The floor depicts seals from the six powers that have at some point held control over Texas land, including the Confederate States of America.(Lauren McGaughy / Staff writer) 6 / 7The Terry's Texas Rangers monument outside the Texas state capitol on Thursday, February 26, 2015 in Austin, Texas. Terry's Texas Rangers was a group of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 7 / 7This photo shows a Civil War memorial on the east grounds of the state Capitol, Monday, March 23, 2015, in Austin, Texas. In a dispute over a proposed Confederate battle flag license plate, the Supreme Court struggled Monday to balance worries about government censorship and concerns that offensive messages could, at worst, incite violence. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ralph Barrera) AUSTIN CHRONICLE OUT, COMMUNITY IMPACT OUT, INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM, MAGS OUT(Ralph Barrera / AP)

City leaders and municipal organizations are already opposing the legislation, which they say would infringe on local control. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called it "another example of state leaders interfering in local decision-making."

"Municipal leaders are best positioned to address these types of matters with the appropriate sensitivity and considerations," Rawlings told The News. "There cannot be one-size-fits-all solutions on complex local challenges."

Bennett Sandlin, who advocates for city and county leaders as the head of the Texas Municipal League, agreed: "Top-down control from the state is seldom the best way to go. Citizens elect their mayors and councils to enact policies they support."

Dallas still has statues of Confederate leaders standing in Pioneer Park Cemetery outside of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Advocates have pushed for the removal of those statues and the renaming of streets and schools named for Confederate leaders, the latter of which have already seen several changes.

Fallon's bill, in its current form, would also require voters to approve changes to historical monuments and school names that have been in place for 20 years or more. But he's planning to remove that portion of the legislation, Fallon said, and instead add in a provision that will ensure war memorials on state property — including the Capitol grounds — remain there in perpetuity.

"If the monument is on public property that is not state-owned, tax dollars cannot be used to remove it," Fallon explained. "If it's on state property, then we're going to protect it."

The Capitol is currently home to several war memorials, including monuments honoring veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. There are three memorials erected in remembrance of Confederate brigades, leaders and soldiers.

Fallon said he does not intend his bill to have an effect on the Children of the Confederacy Creed plaque, a marker inside the State Capitol that claims slavery was not the underlying cause of the Civil War. Several state leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, now support the plaque's removal.

The State Preservation Board will meet on Jan. 11 to discuss the plaque's future.