Mayors warn of economic backlash over bathroom bill
Arguing that Texas cities are essential to the state’s continued prosperity, a group of mayors on Friday urged the Legislature to avoid enacting laws that could harm their success, including proposals to crack down on transgender-friendly bathroom policies.
As cities brace for continued, explosive population growth, fear of an economic backlash over the transgender bathroom bill is a growing concern, the mayors said after a downtown Austin lunch meeting to discuss legislative priorities.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said that while he was making a relocation pitch to a major corporation in a meeting last year that included Gov. Greg Abbott, company executives raised concerns about a potential crackdown on transgender bathrooms.
“The positions of some of our state elected officials were front and center of that discussion,” he said.
It wasn’t an isolated incident, Rawlings said.
“I do it all the time when corporations come to Dallas, and a lot of them ... ask me about that,” he said.
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor said she feared that her tourism-dependent city would lose two large 2018 events — the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four and a national NAACP conference — if lawmakers approved Senate Bill 6, which would prohibit transgender-friendly bathrooms in public schools and government buildings and overturn city ordinances requiring transgender bathrooms.
“That would have a huge, multimillion-dollar impact on our city,” she said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who set up Friday’s meeting of mayors and officials from 11 cities, said the transgender bathroom bill threatens the tourism economy that helps lower taxes for the city’s residents.
“In this debate, I think we need to focus on what is working in the state of Texas,” Adler said. “We have a wide-open state. We attract businesses. We attract tourists. This is a state that is friendly and welcoming.”
Discussion of the bathroom bill, Adler complained, “is taking too much oxygen out of the room” — detracting from a desperate need to reform a school finance system that drains hundreds of millions of dollars from the Austin school district.
Rawlings said he preferred to look at the “glass half full.”
“We believe we have leaders in the state of Texas who understand exactly what we just said. The speaker has built his career on pulling people together,” he said.
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, has said passing a transgender bathroom bill isn’t a priority in the House, where the focus will be on fixing the state’s child protection system, reforming education financing and improving mental health treatment.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, however, has made SB 6 one of his priority items this session and has downplayed fears of an economic backlash as overblown and politically motivated.
Abbott has largely stayed quiet on the matter except to criticize the National Football League for interfering in state political matters after an official said passage of SB 6 could preclude future Super Bowls from being held in Texas.
“While there’s a lot of saber-rattling, when push comes to shove, Texas will do the right thing,” Rawlings said.
In a legislative session dominated by issues of local control — such as when it is appropriate for state officials to limit or overturn ordinances ranging from shopping bag bans to anti-discrimination protections — several mayors said they hoped the Legislature would recognize that their cities have unique cultures and values that contribute to the state’s success.
“Cities in Texas seem to be under attack at times, and we hate to see that because this really is a partnership. The cities don’t create success alone. The state doesn’t create success alone,” said Mayor Maher Maso of Frisco, 25 miles north of Dallas. “We have to be really careful not to break it.”
‘We have a wideopen state. We attract businesses. We attract tourists. This is a state that is friendly and welcoming.’ Steve Adler Austin mayor