From 2017, but still revenant.
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But in Texas, Abbott now suggests that instead of spending time and money battling these issues individually, the state should issue a “ban across the board” on municipal regulations.
“One strategy would be for the state of Texas to take a ‘rifle shot after rifle shot after rifle shot’ approach to try to override all these local regulations,” Abbott explained to the conservative audience last month. “I think it would be far simpler, and frankly easier for those of you who have to run your lives and your businesses on a daily basis, if the state of Texas adopted an overriding policy to create certain standards that must be met.”
The governor has not laid out many more details on how that approach would work, and his press office referred back to his remarks.
But one possibility, says Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, is that the state could strip all 352 home-rule cities, which are free to enact regulations as long as they don’t expressly conflict with state law, of their home-rule powers. They would then be treated as general-rule cities, which are usually small and can regulate only areas the state specifically gives them permission to oversee.
Thanks to U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the early 1900s, states have broad authority to decide what powers to grant to municipalities. Texas is one of 39 states to follow the so-called "Dillon's Rule" for at least some of its local governments. The rule makes clear that municipalities are subordinate to state government.
The Texas constitution also specifies that even home-rule cities can't pass ordinances that contradict state law. In other words, cities wouldn't have much recourse if Texas decided to preempt their powers.
