Austin is weird, but this bill to dissolve it is a lot weirder | Opinion
. In a tweet, Patterson said “elected officials in Austin have failed their city.” He blamed “record high taxes and crime” for pushing folks out of the city, and “San Francisco wannabe policies [that] force the state to come over the top on legislation each session.”
Austin’s city politics frequently have left us scratching our heads in disbelief. However, Patterson’s proposal, which also requires voter approval of a constitutional amendment, would make a mockery of the legislative process, local control and small government. City money, contracts, leases and property, including records, and debt would be transferred to the new entity that the lieutenant governor and speaker of the Texas House would oversee.
If the past is prologue, then this bill, like a similar measure that withered unceremoniously in the 2019 legislative session, is rightly doomed for the waste bin. And if you’re one of Patterson’s constituents, you probably would prefer his attention be on issues closer to home in North Texas than on reorganizing Austin’s city government under state control.
Texans are fiercely independent, imbued with a history of pushing back against perceived overreach from Washington, even to the point of various politicians flirting with secessionist rhetoric, and not always in jest. Moreover, small-government Republicans have long embraced local control until recent legislative sessions when state lawmakers have proposed measures to sharply limit cities’ ability to pass ordinances and enact policies.
The tenets of small government, responsible spending, public safety and accountability should be reflected at city councils and the state Capitol. However, preempting and consolidating power at the statehouse does not serve small government conservatism or provide local accountability that comes when city residents can oust elected officials at the ballot box if they determine that those officials are out of touch or ineffective.
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