If legislators want to break up with Austin, they should at least put their backs into it.
Former state Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, who currently awaits sentencing for federal tax evasion , was the last legislator I remember before the current crop who trotted out a bill to turn Austin into a state-run government district, like D.C. but unlike any other state capital.
Wilson got primaried out in 2004, but the idea has been revived by those lovable rogue characters Briscoe 'n' Frisco, the Panderin' Pups – Reps. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, and Jared Patterson, R-Frisco. The latter has prefiled House Bill 714 and House Joint Resolution 50, identical to bills Cain filed last session, which would change the law and ask voters to amend the Texas Constitution to make the new District of, rather than the City of, Austin the seat of state government.
As Cain's disasterlarious tenure atop the House Elections Committee last session showed, you don't want to put these people in charge of anything they might break, and it's not clear that, having OWND us libs, Patterson intends to break a sweat figuring out how to put this idea into practice. HB 714 as written just changes names and adds a requirement to give notice to each chamber of the Lege when City, er, District Council adopts ordinances, including the budget.
Now, H.J.Res. 50, to ask voters to amend the Constitution, says,"The legislature may enact local laws to govern the operation of the district or to amend or repeal a law, ordinance, order, policy, or other measure adopted by the governing officer or governing body of the district.
As Austinites we're supposed to flinch at the thought of being ditched this way by Daddy Texas, and I'm sure Adler and the mayors before him would all have protested loudly about us losing our capital jobs and status. But even 20 years ago, Austin's trajectory was headed into territory where being the capital was a lot less relevant.
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