(The Center Square) – The Texas Senate passed a bill that would prohibit local governments from imposing regulations that exceed state law. The measure also would allow Texans to sue violators.
HB 2127, filed by Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, which already passed the House, governs nine areas of state law: Agriculture, Business & Commerce, Finance, Insurance, Labor, Local Government, Natural Resources, Occupations, and Property. A committee substitute expanded the scope of state preemption of local regulation in the area of Business & Commerce or Property codes.
The bill was filed because “cities and towns need relief from the pressure to duplicate state regulatory and enforcement efforts,” according to the bill analysis. “Additionally, job creators need a baseline of regulatory consistency across the state that allows them to focus their resources on growing their businesses and increasing their economic impact to the betterment of their employees, their communities, and the state, rather than dealing with unnecessary regulatory compliance.”
The bill “seeks to provide consistency and predictability by preempting local regulation” and provides for “Texans to take legal action against a municipality, county, or official whose conflicting regulations adversely affected them with the possibility of recovering legal relief and associated legal costs.”
The Senate version, filed by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, also includes several amendments, one of which changed the provision to only allow Texans to be able to sue an offending political subdivision, not elected officials individually. It also would prohibit local governments from halting evictions.
The bill passed the House on April 19 with bipartisan support and passed the Senate on May 16.
After the bill passed, Creighton said it was “the most pro-business, pro-growth bill of the 88th session” that the Senate had passed.
“HB 2127 gives Texas job creators the certainty they need to invest and expand by providing statewide consistency and ending the days of activist local officials creating a patchwork of regulation outside their jurisdiction,” he said. “Local governments acting as lawmakers in a patchwork of varying anti-business ordinances result in job killing outcomes.”
Most municipalities, labor unions and Democrats expressed opposition to the bill. The Texas Democratic Party issued a statement, saying, “We trust that community leaders know their communities far better than Texas Republicans at the Capitol do, and local decisions should be made by local school districts, cities, and counties – local leaders, mayors, and county judges who know their jurisdictions best.”
Creighton maintains the bill doesn’t “in any way eliminate local control. We’re eliminating local ‘out-of-control.’ Texas businesses deserve the certainty this bill delivers.”
The National Federation of Independent Businesses praised the bill, saying, “For more than five years, as cities stepped outside their jurisdiction, the pandemic pumped the brakes on our economy, and uncertainty plagued the business environment, our small business owners have done their best to keep their doors open, take care of their employees, and serve their customers.”
Rod Bordelon, senior fellow for regulatory affairs at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said the bill was a win for small businesses across the state. It “provides a consistent regulatory system and increased compliance by ensuring that the state of Texas, not municipalities, is the exclusive regulatory authority over specified areas of state commerce,” he said in a statement. Notably, it “will preempt, and make unenforceable, city ordinances that duplicate and add to regulations already imposed by the State of Texas.”
After passing the Senate, the amended bill goes back to the House. The House either accepts the amended version or the bill goes to conference committee, where members would iron out differences before a final vote is cast.
This article First appeared in the center square