Senate turns up the heat on cities

Local laws are focus of 2 bills rushed through

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate’s conservative majority took aim Wednesday at local laws its members feel infringe on freedom and property rights, rushing through bills that place new limits on cities’ ability to annex land and protect trees on private lots.

The passage of those bills limiting local control, and a third that conversely requires local governments to speed up the issuance of building permits, came during an action-packed, contentious day at the state Capitol.

Police arrested immigration protesters, and gay rights activists and abortion rights supporters also demonstrated against the Senate Republicans’ aggressive tactics aimed at passing as much of Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly conservative special session agenda as quickly as possible.

Abbott, a Republican, has argued that cities are adopting “California-like” policies that are threatening the Texas brand. The

Senate Republicans, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Houston, say local government regulations are stifling Texas citizens and businesses.

Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, who sponsored the bill requiring cities in counties with more than 125,000 people to have an election before a city can annex new lands, said during floor debate that “forced annexation is never right.”

“Today’s vote is a victory for the property rights of all citizens, and I applaud my colleagues in the Senate for giving Texans a voice in the annexation process,” Campbell said.

Under current law, a city can annex territory without support from the people who would be annexed.

Similarly, state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, said tree ordinances that block homeowners from cutting down trees on their own property isn’t right. His bill would prevent cities from enacting tree ordinances that block homeowners and small residential developers from cutting trees.

“This bill is really about private property rights,” Hall said.

Attack ‘out of control’

Sen. Jose Menedez, D-San Antonio, opposed Hall’s bill, arguing that it blocks his city from being able to keep some developers from clear-cutting trees. Hall’s bill would allow developers with 25 lots or fewer to be exempt from city ordinances that ban cutting of trees.

“You don’t like trees?” Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, asked Hall during questioning.

Hall snapped back that he does, but “I also love liberty.”

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said the Republican attack on local control “is just out of control.”

The flurry of bills aimed at cubing city governments, which included legislation that prohibited local governments like Austin from regulating cellphone usage in vehicles, capped a whirlwind 24 hours as the Texas Senate passed 18 of Abbott’s legislative priorities.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, RHouston, called it a “legislative tour de force” that had lawmakers meeting until 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning, then returning to the Capitol for more at 10 a.m. In all, the Senate was in session for nearly 36 hours over three days.

Just after midnight Wednesday, the Senate gave final passage to new paperwork regulations on abortion facilities, a property tax reform bill and a new so-called bathroom bill that would have the effect of blocking transgender children from using changing rooms or bathrooms they are most comfortable with.

“We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount of work in a week,” Patrick told lawmakers as they wrapped up the session on Wednesday afternoon.

The scene offered a stark contrast to the Texas House of Representatives, where just one piece of legislation has made it to final passage — a bill reauthorizing the Texas Medical Board and four other government agencies.

For any of the bills to become law, the Texas House has to pass identical proposals. Whether any of the bills ultimately will become law has been an open question ever since House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, last month called the special session agenda “manure.”

Protesters out in droves

The action-packed special session agenda in the Senate brought out more protesters Wednesday. State police arrested 15 immigration protesters outside the state Capitol after they blocked traffic at a key intersection.

For nearly a week, gay rights groups, public school teachers, abortion rights supporters and law enforcement groups marched on the Capitol to register their opposition to various parts of the agenda.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials at the Capitol complex said the immigration demonstrators, who were protesting Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opposition to a federal policy protecting children from deportation, staged a peaceful sit-in outside his office at midmorning.

Marching afterward to the Capitol, they blocked traffic at the intersection of 15th Street and Congress Avenue, just north of the Capitol. Troopers then moved in and forcibly removed the demonstrators — several of them in handcuffs — to clear the street, DPS and bystanders said.

Authorities said they could not immediately say whether charges would be filed. No injuries were reported, officials said.

Protesters supporting Planned Parenthood and objecting to legislative attempts to further restrict abortions also were at the Capitol on Wednesday. They filled the Capitol with people wearing pink shirts declaring, “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”