Bill places city’s home rule, ordinances at risk

FROM BROWNSVILLE HERALD BY TY JOHNSON | STAFF WRITER | Posted: Monday, March 2, 2015 10:33 pm

A freshman legislator has filed a bill this session that threatens to end more than a century of home-rule in Texas and undo a litany of progressive local ordinances throughout the state, including many in Brownsville.

Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, filed Senate Bill 343, which seeks to require local government ordinances, rules and regulations to conform with state law.

As filed, the bill prohibits municipalities from implementing ordinances that are more stringent than or conflict with a state statute.

The City Commission will consider a resolution during tonight’s regular meeting to register the city’s official opposition to the bill.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on the second floor of BrownsvilleCity Hall on East Elizabeth Street.

AssistantCity Manager Ruth Osuna said if the bill were to be enacted, many local ordinances the Brownsville City Commission wished to implement would have to be cleared by lawmakers in Austin.

“The plastic bag ordinance is a perfect example of a kind of ordinance that a city would not be able to pass,” Osuna said. “We would have to go to the Legislature for approval of an ordinance like that.”

Zoning ordinance changes, multi-family ordinances, landlord regulations and smoking and texting while driving bans in cities from Brownsville to El Paso would be undone if the bill became law.

The bill comes as cities across the nation have followed Seattle, Washington’s lead in passing minimum wage laws that place hourly wage requirements in excess of the federal mark of $7.25.

That movement has led Republican-controlled legislatures like Oklahoma’s to ban cities from enacting such ordinances, but Huffines’ bill would go still further.

tjohnson@brownsvilleherald.com

A more complete version of this story is available at www.MyBrownsvilleHerald.com