In the Lone Star State, Cities Feel the Heat – By Sharon Jayson (usnews.com) / Dec 27 2018
Some Texas lawmakers say the state’s ‘overreach’ meddles with their local purview.
AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas Legislature convenes Jan. 8 for its 140-day biannual session, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are already up in arms about “overreach.” But in the Lone Star State, it’s not just Republicans vs. Democrats — it’s about blue-leaning cities vs. the red state in which they’re located.
Observers are bracing for an extra push against the big four metro areas – Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio — far beyond the “Austin bashing” that’s prevailed for decades. The current political climate has pitted the state against its urban areas as some national groups stir up the divide. Momentum is building for this approaching session to be the ultimate showdown between Texas cities and the state.
“Local control has been under assault a long time now in the Texas Legislature,” says Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas-area Democrat first elected in 2004. “For people who believe in local control, I’m very concerned about an overreach by the state government.”
Last session, lawmakers approved several measures that curtailed local power, including a statewide ban on texting while driving, which superseded stricter hands-free cellphone bans in at least 45 Texas cities, including Austin and San Antonio. Also in that session, the battle over sanctuary cities pitted the state versus local control, with the law making local elected and appointed officials subject to punishment for violating the immigrant enforcement measure. And, legislators approved a statewide law to regulate ride-hailing companies that overrode local measures requiring fingerprinting of drivers in Houston, Austin and other cities.
At the same time, Rep. Matt Krause of Fort Worth says he’s now seeing “a more aggressive overreach on the part of some of our biggest cities.”
“What you’re seeing in some these cities and local governments are attempts at overreach – getting into areas they should not be getting into,” he says.
Krause, a Republican, has filed a measure for the 2019 session to bar cities from adopting ordinances independently of the state, such as measures already approved in Austin and San Antonio that require employers to offer paid sick time to employees.
“From my perspective, they’re not only terrible policies, but it’s not the role of the government to dictate these,” adds Krause, whose Texas House profile page says he’s been “recognized for his stances on limited government.”
Although other states also have GOP-dominated government and pockets of more liberal-leaning cities, Texas is often the most boisterous of the bunch, illustrating the increasing conflict between cities and states over local sovereignty. As cities aim for environmental or social ordinances more in tune with their residents, state governments are attempting to preempt those local laws. During the last legislative session in Texas, measures on annexation, tree ordinances, plastic bag bans and fracking were considered. Topics for 2019 include property taxes, short-term rentals, minimum wage and mandatory sick leave.
“The Texas Legislature is increasingly trying to politicize Texas cities,” says Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, an association that advocates for Texas cities and represents more than 16,000 mayors, council members, city managers, city attorneys and city department heads.
“We’ve been around 106 years and legislatures always come after city authority on specific issues,” Sandlin says. “But it’s wasn’t until 2015 and 2017 that we’ve seen some folks specifically say the state is superior to cities. It’s a handful of lawmakers. And the governor has embraced this philosophy.”
During his re-election campaign this fall, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott promised to offer a cap on city and county property tax growth that restricts their abilities to raise property taxes, which Sandlin says is the Texas Municipal League’s top concern.
Abbott has decried “unchecked overregulation by cities” since he took office in 2015, worrying aloud that Texas was becoming too much like California.
“It’s being done at the city level with bag bans, fracking bans, tree-cutting bans. We’re forming a patchwork quilt of bans and rules and regulations that is eroding the Texas model,” he said in a speech just before the legislative session began in 2015.
Two years later, just before calling lawmakers into a summer special session, Abbott said it was “great to be out of the People’s Republic of Austin.”
“Once you cross the Travis County line, it starts smelling different,” he said. “And you know what that fragrance is? Freedom. It’s the smell of freedom that does not exist in Austin, Texas.”
Longtime lobbyist and political consultant Bill Miller has watched the Austin bashing at the Capitol grow for decades.
“Many of these legislators are not from large cities and draw conclusions based on what they see in Austin. There is most certainly an Austin-bashing vibe and they treat it accordingly in the legislative process,” he says.
Steve Adler, Austin’s mayor since 2015, says the attacks on the capital city are largely over “differences in values and culture.”
“But recently, in the last session, it’s moved away from being ‘Austin bashing’ and moved toward cities generally. It’s part of the urban/rural split we saw nationally and in the last election,” the Democratic mayor says.
Former Houston City Council member turned Democratic State Den. Carol Alvarado says she’ seen the evolution against cities since arriving at the Texas Legislature as a House member, having been elected in 2008.
“Every session, there are more efforts to minimize local control,” she says.
In San Antonio, Jeff Coyle, the city’s director of government and public affairs, says he’s watching the fate of a new city ordinance on short-term rentals approved this fall following a year of extensive study and input.
“Now, we could turn around and lawmakers preempt us and put in a statewide law,” Coyle says. “It’s a perfect example of why unique solutions are appropriate for unique communities. We found an ordinance that fits for us.”
Such beliefs are anathema to national conservative groups like the Arlington, Virginia-based American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, and its offshoot, the American City County Exchange.
ALEC has been a key player nationally in the push and pull over the limits of local control, advocating for these state preemption laws and offering “model bills,” which allow similarly drafted legislation to spread from state to state in an effort to block progressive city laws.
“From the local control versus state control, ALEC’s interest is in promoting smaller government, no more regulation than necessary and in promoting free markets,” says Texas state Rep. Phil King, a Republican representing Weatherford, who was the organization’s national chairman in 2015 and still serves on its national board.
But Sandlin says ALEC and similar organizations are “explicitly pushing this idea that states ought to preempt cities and consolidate power at the statehouse.”
To prepare for this session, the Texas Municipal League launched a campaign in September called “Our Home, Our Decisions” aimed at raising “awareness about the State of Texas eroding the ability of Texans to have a voice in developing local solutions to local problems that affect their neighborhoods and their communities.” Member cities were provided a downloadable package, including a three-minute video, a PowerPoint presentation that can be customized by cities and a PDF handout, all promoting the concept that local lawmakers know their communities best.
“Most legislators of both parties still believe in local control,” Sandlin says. “We’re urging our members to keep close lines of communication and not to panic. I don’t think the state will destroy city authority.”
State Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, a Democrat elected in 2016 to represent part of San Antonio and some nearby suburban and rural areas, says she believes in local control “because people on the ground know their areas better.”
“Every area has a different need,” she says. “I don’t believe we can have a uniform view.”
Although that approach is clearly debatable at the State Capitol, Coyle, also of San Antonio, isn’t taking anything for granted.
“At the core of this is the fact that cities are creatures of the state. The only reason they exist is they were created by state law. In granting us powers, the state can always take them away,” Coyle says. “They are real threats.”
