Marble Falls council briefed on state bills that would affect local control
Multiple bills filed in the 88th Texas Legislature could hamper the ability of cities to govern their residents, including legislation regulating a municipality’s role in influencing local code, requesting certificates of obligation, and altering local taxes.
City Attorney Brad Bullock briefed the Marble Falls City Council on a host of state bills during its regular meeting on April 4.
“To have an understanding of the scope of what we’re looking at, this session, 8,531 bills were filed,” Bullock said. “That’s a record. The Texas Municipal League has a master list of municipal bills filed. That master list is 466 pages long. There’s about a couple of dozen worth mentioning to you all.”
The bills indicate another attack on the ability of local elected officials to govern effectively, Bullock said.
“It’s about how much you want local control versus how much you want it coming out of Austin,” he told councilors. “The theme is taking away local control.”
Legislation such as House Bill 2127 filed by Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) would allow the state to supersede several legal codes, such as labor and finance, currently supervised by a city.
“If the state Legislature has passed a law in any one of these codes, cities are preempted from passing anything that would fall under the labor code,” Bullock said. “That’s just a fundamental shift in the way cities operate.”
Councilor Dave Rhodes agreed with Bullock’s depiction of the legislation.
“Home rule would go out the window,” he said. “It would fundamentally change everything.”
Marble Falls is a home-rule city, which means it may do anything authorized by its charter that is not prohibited by the Texas Constitution or state or federal law. General-law cities have no charter and can only exercise powers specified by state statute.
Bullock fears the change would hinder the ability of local governments to effectively serve their residents.
“Cities are the first and most common way people interact with their government,” Bullock continued. “If you have whole fields being preempted, there’s not a lot for (cities) to do in those regards. It goes beyond intruding on home rule. Any type of city will be very circumscribed in terms of what they can do.”
Another bill of concern is House Bill 863 filed by Rep. Mike Schofield (R-Katy). The measure would drastically alter the way city officials update the tax rate and request certificates of obligation by forcing cities to put proposed changes before voters.
“For certificates of obligations and tax increases, instead of the body being able to approve those kinds of things, it would go to the voters,” Bullock said. “That’s also a big consolidation of power and taking power away from cities.”
Bullock compared the bill to similar legislation passed in California.
“I’m not saying there’s something inherently bad about letting voters have a say, but what’s ironic about this bill is one of the big complaints about California is that everything is up for referendum and initiative and the voters are voting on everything all the time,” Bullock said. “This is almost a step toward that. It strikes me as odd that this is something that would come out of the Texas Legislature, but that’s the bill.”
Because of the voter approval requirement, the bill could slow a city’s ability to respond to issues of infrastructure and public safety.
“If everything has to go up for a vote, then you’re on the uniform election schedule and that’s it,” Bullock said. “If it doesn’t pass, you’d have to wait for the next one. That would also fundamentally change your budgeting and the way you operate.”
Bullock also presented a handful of bills he thinks the city of Marble Falls should consider supporting.
One of these, House Bill 2224 filed by Rep. Ana Hernandez (D-Houston), would allow cities to change speed limits on roads in residential areas without performing a traffic or engineering study.
“That’s probably a good bill because traffic studies are time-consuming and expensive,” Bullock said.
Other popular bills presented to councilors included:
- House Bill 2391 filed by Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston), which would expand ways for cities and residents to request Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hearings for proposed concrete plants;
- House Joint Resolution 123 filed by Rep. DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne), which would restrict the power of the Legislature to mandate requirements on municipalities;
- and House Bill 1486 filed by Rep. Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville), which would require cities to provide telecommunicators with mental health leave.
The Marble Falls City Council along with other home-rule governments statewide will learn which bills make it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk by June 18.
“These bills are at some stage of movement in the process,” Bullock said. “None of these are in the final approval stage.”
2 thoughts on “Marble Falls council briefed on state bills that would affect local control”
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Just keep the Texas legislators out of local affairs. Their distance from local affairs is the best answer.
I’m skeptical of his thinking on HB863. That bill affects only bond passage and tax increases, which every voter should want a say in. It does not, as he says, create a situation where “voters are voting on everything all the time”. It’s limited to 2 issues dealing with our tax money that we should have a direct say in.