Texas passes bill stripping authority from cities (Houston, Dallas: home, live)

[Trainwreck20]

I am pretty sure I know of one incident that possibly contributed to this legislation. A company operating in Houston was contracted to crush a pile of concrete rubble from some demolition project. The company applied to the TCEQ for a temporary crushing permit. They could meet all the requirements - throughput limits, controls, distances to property line, etc - so the TCEQ issued the permit. In the mean time, the City of Houston passed a rule that essentially banned exactly what the TCEQ approved. It went to the TX supreme court and the company won; however, the rule is still 'on the books' in Houston.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by escanlan

Question in blue above.


Also since you are keeping up with this have you seen any changes proposed or coming up to the annexation laws with regards to municipalities operating under a Home Rule charter?

Unfortunately, I don't have a bill #, sorry; I'm hearing about it secondhand vs. through a detailed legislative tracker.

[H'ton]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I am pretty sure I know of one incident that possibly contributed to this legislation. A company operating in Houston was contracted to crush a pile of concrete rubble from some demolition project. The company applied to the TCEQ for a temporary crushing permit. They could meet all the requirements - throughput limits, controls, distances to property line, etc - so the TCEQ issued the permit. In the mean time, the City of Houston passed a rule that essentially banned exactly what the TCEQ approved. It went to the TX supreme court and the company won; however, the rule is still 'on the books' in Houston.

Isn't the R's whole basis, as a party, is that the local government knows more about what is best for their people than bigger governments (state and federal)?


What the drastic change in philosophy?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by H'ton

Isn't the R's whole basis, as a party, is that the local government knows more about what is best for their people than bigger governments (state and federal)?


What the drastic change in philosophy?

Both parties have their 'sales pitches' and then they have their big money donors. Also, since R is mostly rural, bills like this are very unlikely to affect their voter base and therefore not affect their votes. Sales pitch matters nothing when it doesn't affect your voters....

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by H'ton

This bill, along with the state taking over HISD, has told me that the State of Texas has radically trended to the belief system of the left.

People have been brainwashed to think that only left wing governments can be controlling and oppressive
Right wing government can do the same thing and still be right wing.
There’s been many right wing dictatorships

[Igor Blevin]

Originally Posted by elnina

It doesn't matter. Read the HB 2127 bill and made your own mind.

It sounds like the bill conforms to the Texas Constitution.

SECTION 3. The purpose of this Act is to provide statewide
consistency by returning sovereign regulatory powers to the state
where those powers belong in accordance with Section 5, Article XI,
Texas Constitution.


Beyond that, it sounds like the purpose for the bill is to streamline regulations and create a level playing field for the multitude of Texas cities. Instead of a myriad of confusing and varied city regulations, the state desires uniform regulations that all cities must abide by.

The bill includes all manner of "prohibitions" that codify how the bill cannot restrict cities.

As I said before, state law supercedes city codes. In a state where assault rifles are banned, a city can't pass a law letting gun stores sell them.

The bill looks OK to me. My interpretation of the bill is that the state is going to force cities to lift all kinds of restrictive regulations, which provides more freedom for city occupants. That is a good law to me. You have all kinds of cities like Austin passing all manner of draconian regulations. This law is going to put a stop to Austin's ability to over regulate business owners and residents of Austin, and like cities passing hordes of onerous regulations.

If you disagree with this bill, your only recourse is to elect different state legislators.

[ScoPro]

Seeing as how Mayor Adler and the Austin City Council encouraged the literal trashing of our Capital City with hundreds of tons of garbage & human filth in the greenbelts, waterways, parks, downtown streets, and underpasses & bridges, it is no wonder that State officials wanted to do something about it.

[WRM20]

The bill specifically calls out the following codes:
(1) Agriculture Code;
(2) Business & Commerce Code;
(3) Finance Code;
(4) Insurance Code;
(5) Labor Code;
(6) Local Government Code;
(7) Natural Resources Code;
(8) Occupations Code; or
(9) Property Code.

The language of each preemption section is the same, but refers to each of the above codes

<Name of Code Referenced> FIELD PREEMPTION. The provisions of this code
preclude municipalities and counties from adopting or enforcing an
ordinance, order, rule, or policy in a field occupied by a provision
of this code unless explicitly authorized by statute. A municipal
or county ordinance, order, rule, or policy that violates this
section is void and unenforceable.

Some of the effects of this law are:

• Cities like Dallas and Austin that have an ordinance requiring water breaks for workers cannot enforce those ordinances, meaning workers will die(Texas already has a bad record for worker safety)
• No city regulation of payday or title loans, state regulation is weak
• No City or county regulation of pollution

Since the law says only that cities and counties cannot create ordinances on any topic covered by State law in the referenced codes, it will be months before there is a clear understanding of the total impact.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by WRM20

[*]Cities like Dallas and Austin that have an ordinance requiring water breaks for workers cannot enforce those ordinances, meaning workers will die(Texas already has a bad record for worker safety)[*]No city regulation of payday or title loans, state regulation is weak[*]No City or county regulation of pollution[/list]

Where are you getting the information for the bolded statement? Google it PER CAPITA. The state of Texas has a huge population comparatively speaking.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Where are you getting the information for the bolded statement? Google it PER CAPITA. The state of Texas has a huge population comparatively speaking.

Texas had the highest number of worker deaths in 2021, more than California. https://www.bls.gov/charts/census-of...juries-map.htm