Texas Legislature to Consider Limiting Power of Cities to Enact Laws

[Spurminator]

http://keranews.org/post/texas-legislature-considers-bills-limiting-power-cities-enact-laws?__utma=164821157.1971756751.1415036490.142558 7749.1425941894.249&__utmb=164821157.3.10.1425941895&__utmc=164821157&__utmx=-&__utmz=164821157.1425312186.237.18.utmcsr%3Dgoogle %7Cutmccn%3D%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd%3Dorganic%7Cutm ctr%3D%28not+provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=64364591

The “Home Rule” provision in the state's constitution allows municipal ordinances that don't conflict with state or federal law. But lawmakers in Austin have the power to trump them.

State lawmakers this session will consider bills to limit the power of cities to enact certain laws.

Those local ordinances include bans on hydraulic fracturing, using plastic bags at stores, and LGBT non-discrimination ordinances. The effort to rein in local ordinances is a reaction to what Governor Greg Abbott has called the "California-zation" of Texas (http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/how-texas-challenges-the-power-of-cities-and-their-citizens/).

That sentiment is echoed by Republican State Representative Matt Shaheen of Plano (http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=66). He co-authored a House bill this session that would prohibit cities from adopting non-discrimination protections (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/html/HB01911I.htm) not already covered by state law. In Shaheen’s view, cities exist to provide basic services - like infrastructure - and nothing else.

"The state of Texas didn't put cities in place to start playing around with these social-type agendas," said Shaheen, a recent guest on Houston Matters (http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-a/2015/02/25/what-should-cities-control-and-what-should-the-state). "So if you want to see where a ‘nanny state’ is happening, it's more at the local level with these types of ordinances."


http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/files/5796/
Texas Governor Greg Abbott.


But cities with a population of 5,000 or more - and a charter - are known, under the Texas constitution, as "Home Rule" cities.

"They have full power to enact any ordinance that they feel is in their best local interest," said Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, a professor of constitutional law (https://www.stcl.edu/faculty/Rocky_Rhodes.htm) at South Texas College of Law.

The “Home Rule” provision allows city laws that don't conflict with state or federal law. But lawmakers in Austin do have the power to trump city ordinances - sometimes.

"If the state legislature wants to adopt a general law, with respect to 'plastic bags are authorized to be used everywhere in the state' or 'fracking is authorized to be used everywhere in the state,' you can debate the policy of that," Rhodes said. "But there's no question that the Texas Legislature has the authority to do that."

However, that probably wouldn't work with gay and lesbian rights.

"An effort by the state legislature to similarly ban local ordinances protecting LGBT might be viewed under federal law, under the federal constitution, as an invalid form of discrimination based on sexual orientation," the professor said.

In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state of Colorado (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/517/620/case.html) could not block cities such as Denver, Boulder, and Aspen from enacting their own laws to protect gays from discrimination. Professor Rhodes says that precedent would likely keep Texas from doing the same thing.

[Spurminator]

Big Government Republicans at work. You should have no power to influence local laws, you should be subject to your gerrymandered state-level representation alone.

[Nbadan]

As Texas turns back to blue, the GOP is losing control of cities in the state..this is also why even though San Antonio and other big Texas cities are primarily Democrat, there is no Progressive talk radio in any Texas city..

[boutons_deux]

"the GOP is losing control of cities in the state."

Dallas, SA, Austin, Houston are already blue. It's everywhere else that's red. Hispanics don't vote, so don't get your hope up for blue Hispanics and blue Texas.

[boutons_deux]

"The state of Texas didn't put cities in place to start playing around with these social-type agendas," said Shaheen, a recent guest on Houston Matters.

Oh Really? then why are Repugs running on, and governing with almost TOTALLY on "social-type agendas" (after they "tax expend" $10Bs/year on BigCorp) ?

[DMC]

Cities should have rights to police themselves. Citizens can always challenge the Constitutionality of such laws. Most of the laws are protecting rights, not infringing upon them. So you can't get plastic bags, I get tons of these things and discard them anyhow. I haven't suffered by having to carry my own bags. In fact, I was doing it long before Austin stopped handing out bags.

Usually these things are about zoning and voting and such. I see no issue with the current system. Even 100 years or more ago cities set their own laws regarding vagrants and firearms.

[boutons_deux]

So TX Repug dictators are going replace all local ordinances,laws,regs with state-wide laws?, or just the macho man/Christian-hater "social agenda" hot button stuff like nanny rules, plastic bags, California stuff, LGBT, etc?

[Spurminator]

There's one reason for this and one reason alone: Fracking bans.

[FromWayDowntown]

It is remarkable that Texas Republicans think no state should be told what to do by Washington, but that every city can be told what to do by Austin.

Actually, that's probably not remarkable at all.

[TeyshaBlue]

Remnants of nation-stateism.

[Winehole23]

A bill that would give Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office sweeping power to allow or disallow local initiatives and referenda had its first hearing in the House Committee on State Affairs today. The bill is among several in the Legislature squashing local control—and while it got a cautious reception from the committee, it’s supported by some of the state’s most influential business interests.


In recent years, referenda and ballot initiatives have grown in importance as ways for Texans to enact change and hold local governments accountable. The most notable recent example is a ban on hydraulic fracturing (http://www.texasobserver.org/fracking-ban-wagon-denton/) in Denton, which passed a fairly conservative electorate by a wide margin. The Denton ban was the subject of much of today’s debate.


House Bill 540 (http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/html/HB00540I.htm), sponsored by Phil King (R-Weatherford), would require any referendum or ballot initiative in one of Texas’ home-rule charter cities to be reviewed by the attorney general’s office. The attorney general would rule on whether the proposed ballot initiative or referendum would violate “the Texas or federal constitution, a state statute, or a rule adopted as authorized by state statute,” or if it would constitute a “government taking of private property.”


That may sound clear-cut, but it’s not. The normal method for deciding whether a law is constitutional involves months or years of careful scrutiny by the courts. Instead, King would give that power to bureaucrats in the AG’s office. If an initiative is detrimental to a powerful and GOP-allied interest group, would the AG’s office really let it slide?http://www.texasobserver.org/committee-hears-bill-to-allow-ken-paxton-to-toss-local-ballot-initiatives/

[Winehole23]

A representative of Paxton’s office happily told the committee no additional staff was required to fulfill the bill’s responsibilities.

[boutons_deux]

"it’s supported by some of the state’s most influential business interests."

Repugs will always crush Human-Americans to benefit Corporate-Americans.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

What i think is bad is the administration he was part of for a decade had an economic policy to try and poach California's skilled workers with an advertising campaign of no taxes and a welcoming Texas. Now he is railing against the "Californization" as cause? Lawyers are commonly sophists.

[Nbadan]

Texas House approves gutting municipal fracking bans
Source: Reuters


The Texas House overwhelmingly approved a bill on Friday that would give the state the exclusive right to regulate the oil and gas industry, and gut the power of municipalities to pass anti-fracking rules.

In Texas, the top U.S. crude producer and the birthplace of fracking, the bill also needs to be passed by the state's Senate and signed by the governor before it becomes law.

State lawmakers have been under pressure to halt an incipient anti-fracking movement since November, when voters in the town of Denton voted to outlaw the oil and gas extraction technique behind the U.S. energy boom.

In fracking, a mixture of pressurized water, sand and chemicals is used to unlock oil and natural gas from rock. Operators say it is safe, but many environmental groups oppose the practice - calling it wasteful, polluting, dirty and noisy.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/us-shale-texas-fracking-idUSKBN0N829A20150417

[boutons_deux]

"Texas House approves gutting municipal fracking bans"

... may these authoritarian BigOil whores have the property values of THEIR McMansions and 2nd homes destroyed by fracking wells, and then pumpjacks forever.

[Blake]

It is remarkable that Texas Republicans think no state should be told what to do by Washington, but that every city can be told what to do by Austin.

Actually, that's probably not remarkable at all.

Texas being Texas

[Winehole23]

good article on the possible aftermath:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20150502-hb-40-could-set-off-change.ece

[boutons_deux]

good article on the possible aftermath:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20150502-hb-40-could-set-off-change.ece

SkyPeople totally own, dominate petro-state TX legislature and judiciary. Resistance, all opposition, is futile.

Your property values cratered by drilling rigs? tough shit, welcome to life with an unsellable home, underwater mortgage.

[boutons_deux]

Unending evidence that all y'all's Repugs are nasty, hateful authoritarians, with the VRWC War On Employees being at the very top.

Extreme Bill Would Override All Local Employment Laws, Including LGBT Protections (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/05/13/3658201/michigan-death-star-employment-bill/)

During a meeting of the Michigan House Committee on Commerce and Trade, Republican lawmakers sneakily introduced a substitute bill replacing HB 4052.

The new legislation (http://d35brb9zkkbdsd.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/H0075815-H-2-Draft-2-Sub.pdf), sponsored by Rep. Earl Poleski (R), overrides all local ordinances governing employers’ relationships with their employees.

Because of the way it would impose state control, opponents have dubbed it the “Death Star” bill.

Not only does it have implications for any local ordinance that controls minimum wage, benefits, sick leave, union organizing and strikes, wage disputes, apprenticeship programs, and “ban the box” policies (blocking employers from asking about felony convictions), but it would also override the LGBT protections that exist in 38 Michigan municipalities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Michigan#Discrimination_protections ).

“A local governmental body,” the new HB 4052 reads, “shall not adopt, enforce, or administer an ordinance, local policy, or local resolution regulating the relationship between an employer and its employees or potential employees if the regulation contains requirements exceeding those imposed by state or federal law.”

Because state law does not include employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, all of the municipalities who do protect LGBT workers would have their ordinances voided, similar to a law that passed earlier this year in Arkansas (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/02/24/3626203/lgbt-protections-ban-arkansas-texas/).

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/05/13/3658201/michigan-death-star-employment-bill/

[RandomGuy]

http://keranews.org/post/texas-legislature-considers-bills-limiting-power-cities-enact-laws?__utma=164821157.1971756751.1415036490.142558 7749.1425941894.249&__utmb=164821157.3.10.1425941895&__utmc=164821157&__utmx=-&__utmz=164821157.1425312186.237.18.utmcsr%3Dgoogle %7Cutmccn%3D%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd%3Dorganic%7Cutm ctr%3D%28not+provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=64364591

The “Home Rule” provision in the state's constitution allows municipal ordinances that don't conflict with state or federal law. But lawmakers in Austin have the power to trump them.

State lawmakers this session will consider bills to limit the power of cities to enact certain laws.

Those local ordinances include bans on hydraulic fracturing, using plastic bags at stores, and LGBT non-discrimination ordinances. The effort to rein in local ordinances is a reaction to what Governor Greg Abbott has called the "California-zation" of Texas (http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/how-texas-challenges-the-power-of-cities-and-their-citizens/).

That sentiment is echoed by Republican State Representative Matt Shaheen of Plano (http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=66). He co-authored a House bill this session that would prohibit cities from adopting non-discrimination protections (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/html/HB01911I.htm) not already covered by state law. In Shaheen’s view, cities exist to provide basic services - like infrastructure - and nothing else.

"The state of Texas didn't put cities in place to start playing around with these social-type agendas," said Shaheen, a recent guest on Houston Matters (http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-a/2015/02/25/what-should-cities-control-and-what-should-the-state). "So if you want to see where a ‘nanny state’ is happening, it's more at the local level with these types of ordinances."


http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/files/5796/
Texas Governor Greg Abbott.


But cities with a population of 5,000 or more - and a charter - are known, under the Texas constitution, as "Home Rule" cities.

"They have full power to enact any ordinance that they feel is in their best local interest," said Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, a professor of constitutional law (https://www.stcl.edu/faculty/Rocky_Rhodes.htm) at South Texas College of Law.

The “Home Rule” provision allows city laws that don't conflict with state or federal law. But lawmakers in Austin do have the power to trump city ordinances - sometimes.

"If the state legislature wants to adopt a general law, with respect to 'plastic bags are authorized to be used everywhere in the state' or 'fracking is authorized to be used everywhere in the state,' you can debate the policy of that," Rhodes said. "But there's no question that the Texas Legislature has the authority to do that."

However, that probably wouldn't work with gay and lesbian rights.

"An effort by the state legislature to similarly ban local ordinances protecting LGBT might be viewed under federal law, under the federal constitution, as an invalid form of discrimination based on sexual orientation," the professor said.

In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state of Colorado (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/517/620/case.html) could not block cities such as Denver, Boulder, and Aspen from enacting their own laws to protect gays from discrimination. Professor Rhodes says that precedent would likely keep Texas from doing the same thing.

The state GOP is all for "local control" until someone does something they don't like. Then they are all about the state trumping that local control.

smh

[Nbadan]

Texas governor signs law to prohibit local fracking bans
Source: Al Jazeera


Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed a bill into law that prohibits cities and towns from banning an oil drilling practice known as hydraulic fracking, giving the state sole authority over oil and gas regulation.

Lawmakers in Texas, a state that is home to the two of the most productive U.S. shale oil fields, have been under pressure to halt an anti-fracking movement since November, when voters in the town of Denton voted to ban the oil and gas extraction technique. Residents near the 270 gas wells there had told Al Jazeera they suffered from nosebleeds and nausea that they said they believed resulted from fracking byproducts.

"This law ensures that Texas avoids a patchwork quilt of regulations that differ from region to region, differ from county to county or city to city," Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement.

In fracking, a mixture of pressurized water, sand and chemicals is directed at rock to unlock oil and natural gas. Operators say it is safe because, but many environmental groups oppose the practice, calling it wasteful, polluting, dirty and noisy.


Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/18/texas-governor-signs-law-to-prohibit-local-oil-well-fracking-bans.html

[boutons_deux]

"Texas avoids a patchwork quilt of regulations that differ from region to region"

As always, Repugs are LYING. They don't give shit about patchworks, or Californiazation, only enabling Sky People fucking Na'vi for profit.

Remember the Exxon exec who was pissed because a fracking well ruined his country McMansion's view?

Suburban, urban fracking will destroy $10Bs in home (re)sale values, pushing mortgages underwater (like California! :lol), but probably not property appraisal values.

[boutons_deux]

Exhausting Legal Options, Residents of Texas Town Take Direct Action to Enforce Fracking Ban


now you see the Na'vi :

http://www.truth-out.org/images/Images_2015_06/2015_0602fra_1.jpg

Now you don't :

http://www.truth-out.org/images/Images_2015_06/2015_0602fra_2.jpg

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31132-exhausting-legal-options-residents-of-texas-town-take-direct-action-to-enforce-fracking-ban

Sky People Crush the Na'vi

[Nbadan]

Texas city repeals historic fracking ban under legal and political duress
Source: The Guardian


An underdog Texas city that tried to ban hydraulic fracturing bowed to heavy political and legal pressure Tuesday night and repealed its landmark ordinance after seven months.

Denton made headlines last November when voters in the university city of 125,000 on the Barnett Shale near Dallas decided to prohibit fracking amid concerns about the impact of its 280 wells on health and the environment. It became the first city to ban fracking in the heavily Republican, oil-industry friendly state. Denton had already issued a moratorium on new gas drilling permits in May last year.

But victory for fracking opponents was short-lived. A trade body, the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA), filed a lawsuit the next day alleging that the city had exceeded its powers. A state agency, the Texas General Land Office, also took legal action against Denton. Then last month Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill known as HB 40 which establishes that state laws trump local laws on oil and gas activities - in effect, banning Denton’s ban.

The city said in a statement: “As this ban has been rendered unenforceable by the State of Texas in HB 40, it is in the overall interest of the Denton taxpayers to strategically repeal the ordinance.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/17/texas-denton-fracking-ban-repeal

[boutons_deux]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xTqP58o1iw

Let me tell you somethin', pendejo Denton, nobody fucks with BigOil. click click click

[Nbadan]

The 'New Democracy'....who runs your state?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHqdJ7TUYAAAqnN.jpg