No matter which side of the political aisle they call home, most Texans share a common enthusiasm for our state’s unique ability to create and maintain jobs for hard-working families. Unfortunately, if we don’t act to maintain state consistency in regulations that affect companies that employ so many Texans, our status as the nation’s top job creator will be short-lived.
If you’re not a small business owner, you may not be aware of the growing barriers to meaningful growth that are emerging in our state’s cities. They mostly come from municipal governments that have made the financially and legally dubious choice to create their own version of the Texas Legislature and the constellation of state agencies that implement and enforce the laws we pass.
A deeper dig into the cause of this false duplication often reveals the influence of small but powerful activist factions who realize that their wild agendas will not gain even an inch of traction in the Texas Legislature. . So they shift their efforts to the local level where governing bodies aren’t necessarily equipped to fully scrutinize their harmful ideas or stop them in their tracks as common sense dictates.
These supposedly well-intentioned efforts tend to target protections for the environment and unions beyond those already in place and well-enforced by agencies such as the Railroad Commission, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Workforce Commission. Who can blame the leaders of the city government who want not to be called hard-hearted by the public or social media by these deceitful and noisy political groups? Well, you can start with small business owners whose necessarily tight margins can eat them alive with the costs associated with tracking and complying with different sets of rules in nearly every Texas city they serve. .
Take, for example, the city of Houston, where seemingly endless layers of union-authored local rules essentially require small businesses to retain a compliance officer to help them -navigate the maze of local rules that conflict with standards elsewhere in the state. If they don’t and end up breaking a local rule, they face huge fines that could lead to closure.
Throw in Dallas’ efforts to ban gas lawnmowers, Austin’s sick leave requirements and Denton’s short-lived attempt to ban fracking and the challenges of building businesses with jobs spanning the state has become more complicated. At the same time, each of these structures creates more work for companies while it actually increases the size and complexity of local government. These are not good outcomes for job creators and the people who depend on them.
The city council or mayor may think they are scoring political points by passing an ordinance that goes against state law, but they are actually only undermining the intentions of the people they serve.
That’s why I filed House Bill 2127, the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, which mandates local governments to give up regulating things that are already handled at the state level. This bill provides regulatory stability and certainty that will enable business owners to expand their businesses to other cities within Texas with greater consistency, creating more jobs and prosperity in the process. . At the same time, it really gives local governments a hand by giving them a simple reason why they can’t, in fact, bring to a vote the countless issues that activists have been harassing to pass. locally. This not only saves money in the budgets of local governments, but also gives them a measure with the freedom to focus on traditional local issues that they are equipped to manage such as sewers, garbage collection and safety that street.
Meanwhile, this bill also positions Texas to take advantage of rebounding growth in stateside manufacturing as the “onshoring” trend causes businesses to move away from geopolitical enemies like China and back to US soil. While that opportunity is growing, why would a company bother to build more factories in more cities when the complexities of different rules promise to fill their shops with inspectors and drain their purse of fines and fees. A statewide standard would be better.
So, if you’re not ready for Austin to become more like Portland and Dallas to become more like San Francisco with their patchwork of job-killing ordinances and no accountability for the champions of such nonsense, be informed at your elected representatives you need their support on this. issue. The passage of HB 2127 is a great step in keeping jobs coming to Texas.
Dustin Burrows is the state representative for District 83 in Lubbock. He writes this column for The Dallas Morning News.
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