SAN ANTONIO — If you were to ask Texas Republicans at the state capital what HB 2127 does, they would likely tell you it "provides consistency and predictability by preempting local regulation of matters regulated by the state." You'd hear a similar argument for HB 2266.
Thursday morning at the San Antonio City Council, councilman John Courage described the bills another way.
"I am really horrified at these two bills that are going to pretty much strip the citizens of San Antonio from making decisions on what they think is best for their community," Courage said. "It is very worrisome as a member of this council and a citizen of San Antonio. It's really going to cripple municipalities across the state."
City staff described the bills in more straightforward terms. Staff said HB 2127 would prevent Texas cities from adopting or enforcing ordinances related to maters already regulated by the State Agriculture code, Business and Commerce code, Finance code, Labor code, and more. HB 2266 would prevent cities from regulating around two dozen occupations any more stringently than the State of Texas.
Currently Texas cities can regulate some of these matters more strictly than the state does. The new bills could functionally prevent cities from regulating those matters at all and HB 2127 could soon be on the governors desk.
Council members also said the current version of 2127 is vague so it's not clear how many current city policies could be affected. District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia said she believes it will undo weeks of work on multiple policies.
"This will jeopardize tenants rights. It will jeopardize our responsible bidder ordinance, noise mitigation which we have taken up recently, heat related illness (water break ordinance) that we were planning to take up, and then the proactive apartment inspections. Those are just a few of the ones that are really critical," Rocha Garcia said.
"I am repulsed by the advancement of 2127, which is extremely anti-worker and anti-democratic," District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo said.
Councilmembers said they were anxious to hear what they could potentially do in response if the bill is passed.
UTSA Political Science Chair Jon Taylor tole KENS 5 there may not be much cities can if the bill passes because of the wording of the Texas Constitution.
"I'm interested to see if there will be litigation. The question is, where would you litigate? The state constitution pretty much lays out municipal law, it lays out the power of cities and counties, it lays out state authority," Taylor said.
Taylor tater told KENS 5 that cities and counties have already lost similar lawsuits over authority related to 5G networks, Covid-19 restrictions, public hospitals, law enforcement, elections, and other issues. He said the Texas Constitution and Texas Municipal Law has favored the state government so far.
"The question is, what is the approach the city of San Antonio and Bexar County can take to make the argument that this legislation is somehow a violation of the state constitution or of the Texas Municipal Code? I don't know. Good luck with that."