An alarming Texas law, dubbed “The Texas Death Star Bill,” is going to reel in some autonomy that local governments have enjoyed. The Texas Regulatory Consistency Act mandates that local governments are not able to pass ordinances that are outside of state law in multiple areas such as agriculture, finance, labor, natural resources, environment, occupations, business and commerce, insurance, local government code, and property. The state has to preempt statutes first in these categories before a local government can pass a law. Municipalities will not be able to pass ordinances beyond state law.

The doctrine of preemption in the United States “is a legal doctrine that allows upper levels of government to restrict or even prevent a lower-level government from self-regulating. While it is often thought of in the context of the federal government preventing state regulation, preemption is increasingly used as a tool by states to limit cities, counties, and other lower-level municipalities from legislating across a broad array of issues.”

The state government views there as an issue with business expansion in Texas because different counties are starting to have different ordinances that companies have to hurdle through. Supporters of the law believe that this protects businesses that are trying to expand across the state. In an article written by Forbes, the “enactment of Representative Burrows’ bill would make it so state lawmakers don’t have to come back and pass legislation every time a new regulatory fad catches on with local officials.”

Supporters of the law think that there are inconsistencies across the state and that harms business growth when they’re branching out into other counties. This legislation’s goal is to reign in the inconsistencies and just set a one for all regulation under the state.

What worries people is that the law will remove autonomy from local governments and communities that vote for certain laws and ordinances that a city council may pass. Local governments are worried that this is going to prevent and remove local ordinances that are in place for protecting the public, voted on by the public, hurt local labor rights, and transfer power away from the people to the state. 

According to previous reporting on the issue, “opponents of the bill say that it threatens local autonomy to govern and regulate many issues that happen where the local government needs to amend laws. Other worries are that it would undermine the achievements of local governments that have passed minimum wage laws, labor protections, food programs, and more.”

One thing of note in the news is this might harm certain workers’ rights in bigger cities like Austin, Dallas, and Houston which have certain protections for laborers and construction workers that are now going to be removed because they’re not in state law. Another is the law will stop cities from making laws that would protect tenants facing eviction. 

Yet, the state says that there are many federal and state protections that local governments can rely on such as OSHA. Yet, others view the ordinances put in place by local governments make up the protections for workers where the federal and state governments lack in providing. 

With all of this, the state is not totally taking over the way local governments run their municipalities. Counties around Texas can still exercise power given to them by the Texas Consitution, according to an article by Husch Blackwell LLC. Husch Blackwell LLC examines that the new law still allows local governments to regulate areas such as:

• Building and maintaining roads.
• Levying taxes.
• Adopting and maintaining rules relating to the “control, care, management, welfare, or health and safety of animals.”
• Conducting public awareness campaigns.
• Supervising and regulating local government employees.