San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg says the upcoming Special Session of the Texas Legislature is nothing short of an 'all out attack on cities," News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
He says the vast majority of the measures Gov. Abbott has placed on the agenda are designed to strip cities of their authority and their ability to deal with their growing population, from measures regulating bathroom usage to limiting a city's annexation authority, to stripping the city of the right to preserve trees, to establishing a statewide policy on texting while driving, which would repeal the city's two year old hands free ordinance.
Nirenberg says this attack on cities baffles him.
"We are closest to our constituents, we are the lifeblood of the Texas economy," Nirenberg said. "It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense from an economic perspective or a quality of life standpoint, for the Texas Legislature to continue to attack cities."
But it does make a lot of sense from a political standpoint. The state Legislature and the state government, which are led by increasingly conservative Republcians, are 'big footing' the cities, which are led by increasingly liberal Democrats. Many of the bills already approved in the Legislature during the regular session are designed to strip cities of influence, on the grounds that they are trampling on individual rights or spending too much money, or both.
City Intergovernmental Relations Director Jeff Coyle said the City will aggressively fight most of the bills.
He says the bill limiting municipal annexation, for example, shows a 'fundamental misunderstanding' of the steps cities like San Antonio must take to protect military bases, in this case Camp Bullis, which is in the middle of a fast growing area the city wants to annex.
He says lacking zoning authority, counties cannot provide the levels of protection from encroachment, lighting, environmental protection, and other areas need to make sure bases can continue to fulfill their mission.
But he says there is a possible compromise the city would agree to.
"If the state is insistent in requiring a vote before annexation, a vote of the public, that vote should be citywide," he said, instead of just a vote of people who would be annexed.
Coyle also said the proposed statewide texting and driving ban would make San Antonio streets less safe.
He says the statewide law only barrs receiving, sending, or reading a text message while driving.
"It says nothing about watching a video on your cell phone, playing a video game, talking on a hand held phone while driving," he said. "All of that is already prohibited in our hands free ordinance."
But Coyle and Nirenberg agreed there will be no compromise on the 'bathroom bill,' which would overturn the existing city 'Non Discrimination Ordinance' and restrict the use of public and school restrooms to the gender on the person's birth certificate.
"There is no compromise on that, no bill is acceptable to us," he said. "We want the issue to go away, because there is not a problem."
When asked if there is anything he supports in the upcoming session, Nirenberg thought about it and then replied:
"The most positive part of the agenda at this point is adjournment."