Texas Lege Preview: GOP Attacks on Local Control Are Limited, So Far

Austinites gather at City Hall in 2023 (Photo by John Anderson)

With the session just beginning, so far there have been few attacks on “local control” from state lawmakers – that is, the ability for cities like Austin to govern themselves.

State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, has once again filed his bill (House Bill 274) that would kill the city of Austin – controlled by its residents and the local leaders the city’s voters elect to office – and create the District of Austin, which would be controlled by the lieutenant governor and speaker of the house. Austin would still have a mayor and City Council, but any new laws or ordinances they adopt would have to be submitted to the lieutenant governor and speaker for review. The bill has been a pipe dream for Republicans and has little chance of passing (this is Cain’s third session filing such a bill).

One potential local-control bill that causes local leaders anxiety is a law that could undermine Project Connect, the multibillion-dollar transit investment that voters approved via a 2020 tax rate election. The plan survived a Republican-led attempt to kill it in 2023, but lawmakers are expected to take another crack at derailing the plan (last month, a Travis County judge tossed one of the two court cases that could also kill Project Connect).

Maybe the absence of local-control bills can be explained by success during the 88th legislative session. Republicans passed an omnibus local-control law – known as the “Death Star” bill – that took a cudgel to a range of local-control issues (the law was struck down by a district court judge in 2023, but the state is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas). Or, maybe Republican lawmakers are still crafting new bills to reduce cities’ power. Time will tell.