SB 149 - Relating to the authority of a municipality to regulate statewide commerce.
From the Bill Analysis:
This bill has a clear purpose: to encourage the free flow of intra-state commerce within this great state of Texas.
Concerned parties in Texas, including many small businesses, have expressed that a patchwork of dissimilar local government ordinances, rules, and regulations has impaired the free flow of statewide commerce and resulted in regulatory barriers and inefficient regulatory burdens on specific commercial activity conducted in more than one municipality.
Regulation that frustrates the free flow of intra-state commerce is problematic because it raises consumers' costs and impedes job creation. Chaotic local regulation also limits the expansion of the tax base and thus reduces funding for necessary services. In short, it impairs liberty.
The bill seeks to address these concerns by prohibiting municipalities from adopting or enforcing regulatory requirements on the purchase or sale of goods or services by a person who engages in such commercial activity in more than one municipality, subject to certain exceptions to preserve municipalities' authority to regulate inherently local concerns.
As proposed, S.B. 149 amends current law relating to the authority of a municipality to regulate statewide commerce.
This bill has stalled in the Senate's Business and Commerce Committee. A similar bill - HB 2127 - seems about to head to the governor's office for a signature. Critics have dubbed it the Death Star Bill.
HB 631 - Relating to parental rights in education.
From the bill itself:
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 26, Education Code, is amended by adding
Section 26.016 to read as follows:
Sec. 26.016. PARENTAL RIGHTS AND REMEDIES
(a) The Texas Education Agency shall adopt procedures for
notifying a student's parent if there is a change in the student's
services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional,
or physical health or well-being and the school's ability to
provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student.
The procedures must reinforce the fundamental right of parents to
make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their
children by requiring school district personnel to encourage a
student to discuss issues relating to his or her well-being with his
or her parent or to facilitate discussion of the issue with the
parent. The procedures may not prohibit parents from accessing any
of their student's education and health records created,
maintained, or used by the school district. . . .
Nothing seems to have happened to it after introduction. Attention shifted to SB 8, which has passed the Senate, but is still in a House Committee.
- Click here for more on the Parents Bill of Rights.
SB 1750 - Relating to abolishing the county elections administrator position in certain counties.
From the Bill Analysis:
Under the Texas Election Code, elections can be managed mainly by either the county clerk or an election administrator. The county clerk is an elected position and the election administrator is an appointed position.
The only means to remove an election administrator is by four out of five votes of the election commission, which is comprised of the county judge, county clerk, tax assessor-collector, and the party chairs for the parties that nominated their candidates by primary election. There is little oversight of the election administrator ("EA") under Texas law. While the secretary of state is the election administration official for Texas, the secretary of state�s enforcement authority is limited. Currently, Bexar, Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties have an EA.
Bexar, Collin, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Travis counties each have over 1,000,000 in population and their voters make up close to 40 percent (40%) of the registered voters in Texas. Yet, if all of these counties had an EA, only 25 people would have control over who is running the election for 40 percent of the Texas electorate. Currently, Travis County is the only one of those six counties with a county clerk administering elections.
S.B. 1750 would require all counties with a population over 1,000,000 to have their elections administered by an elected official, the county clerk. This requirement would allow for more accountability and transparency to the voting public. Elected officials are in the public making public appearances and are much more available to the voters than an election administrator.
As proposed, S.B. 1750 amends current law relating to abolishing the county elections administrator position in certain counties.
This has passed the Senate, and is about to be considered on the House floor.
