Cities prep for battle with state lawmakers
Days after the revelation that House Speaker Dennis Bonnen said in a secretly recorded meeting he hoped to make it the “worst session in the history of the legislature for cities and counties,” some Texas city officials say they are preparing for the worst.
The battle between mostly Democratic local governments and Republican leadership at the state level over who should make the rules over certain aspects of residents’ lives — whether it be mandatory paid sick leave, ridesharing or sanctuary city status — has been a keystone of Texas politics in recent years.
After the Bonnen recording was released publicly this week, the level of hostility behind that political cat-and-mouse game came into focus, officials said.
“They’re shocked to see the extreme nature of them,” said Bennett Sandlin, director of the Texas Municipal League, which analyzes and tracks legislation on behalf of cities. “We’re going to disagree with some state officials on which level of government ought to be in charge of what, but we can do that respectfully.”
Bonnen tried to clarify his comments in a tweet thread he posted just a day before announcing he would not run for re-election.
“For years, urban local govts (governments) in our state have run amok, using the cover of ‘local control’ to pass whatever laws/ordinances they want,” Bonnen wrote. “When they exceed their jurisdiction, the state is obligated to keep them in check.”
That has been the mentality of officials all the way to the top of Texas politics. Just last week, Gov. Greg Abbott, upset with the city of Austin’s new policy allowing more homeless camping, threatened to send the Texas Department of Transportation to remove people from under bridges and overpasses.
And this spring, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into San Antonio after the city council blocked fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A from its airport in part because some members disagreed with company leadership’s anti-LGBT views.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday he believes Bonnen’s comments reflected broader attitudes among state leaders,
whom he expects to continue passing laws limiting the power of local officials across Texas.
“When you have the state leadership saying their intent is to destroy cities and counties, then we better make sure we do everything on our part to protect the interests of our city,” Turner said.
San Antonio director of public affairs Jeff Coyle took a more optimistic approach, saying the situation provided an opportunity for state and local officials to start fresh.
“We are hopeful that this is the start of a renewed partnership between cities and the state,” Coyle said. “We are going to continue to do what we always do — advocate at the Legislature on behalf of the community we serve.”
He added that the city’s legislative agenda, approved by council members elected by constituents, is meant to reflect the priorities of San Antonio residents.
“We will continue to work hard to keep our residents plugged in to the process and aware of the impacts of legislation to our city,” Coyle said.
Of particular concern for cities and counties was the indication from Bonnen and other state GOP leaders that one of their top priorities in the next legislative session will be to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying.
That has led some local officials and the Texas Municipal League to start forming plans for how to overcome such restrictions.
“There’s less and less interest at the Capitol in hearing from policy organization, and you have to hear from the grass roots of those organizations themselves,” Sandlin said. “The actual speaking to legislators is going to have to be done more and more by mayors and council members.”
Sandlin said the organization, which represents hundreds of cities, saves them hours and hours of research and analysis on the about 7,500 bills filed per session.
“Do you really want every mayor’s chief of staff to do that in all 1,215 cities? It’s a waste of resources and would be unfortunate,” he said.
Houston City Council approved a $95,000 contract with the organization Wednesday.
The vote was preceded by nearly an hour in which council members questioned what more they could do to wrest back control from state leaders, or to repair relationships that have increasingly fractured amid protracted — and often hostile — power struggles between Houston and Austin.
The conversation initially was civil, but tempers flared as council members continued to lay bare the potential problems they could face in Austin.
At one point, District A Councilwoman Brenda Stardig implied that city leaders had exacerbated tensions with Austin.
“My community is tired,” Stardig said. “They’re tired of the fighting, and I think voter turnout is probably going to be reflective of that.”
Others noted that, as Texas’ largest city, Houston’s approach to legislative affairs in many ways sets the model for cities statewide. Because of that, District K Councilwoman Martha Castex-Tatum said, the city will need to lead the charge on behalf of smaller, lesswealthy municipalities.
Castex-Tatum also represents Houston on the Texas Municipal League. She rebuffed some comments from her colleagues that played down the organization’s ability to sway state leaders, and called the group’s work “critically important” to both Houston and cities that look to it for guidance.
“Some of these cities don’t know how they’re going to function,” she said. “We better be ready to protect our local control. And if we don’t? God help us.”