Gov. Greg Abbott has spent much of the past six months focused on police defunding and trying to make sure every other Texan is focused on it, too.
On Twitter and in televised news conferences, the Republican has railed against the city of Austin’s efforts to scale back and restructure police spending and called on legislators to craft a law so onerous that no city or town would dare cut its local law enforcement budget again.
“We’re not going to let cities in Texas follow the lead of cities like Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis by defunding the police,” he said in his annual statewide address this month. “That’s crazy.”
But while Abbott has provided plenty of rhetorical kindling, lawmakers have yet to rally around any of his policy prescriptions, and the path forward could be a slog. The governor’s proposals are mostly untested, have been only vaguely defined and are sure to face stiff opposition from city leaders and residents who fear they may be unintentionally harmed by a law whose only ostensible target is Austin.
“This punishment for defunding the police is a far better political issue than it is in implementation,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “Once you end up having to do it, it’s kind of messy.”
The saga began in August, when the Austin City Council cut 5 percent from its police budget in the wake of a local police killing and amid national unrest over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. They also pledged to shift tens of millions of dollars worth of traditional police functions to other city agencies.
Abbott has pressed lawmakers to consider a raft of retaliatory measures for cities such as Austin, including stripping annexation powers from offending cities, withholding sales tax revenue and having state troopers take over entire police departments.
All of the sanctions would appear to be unprecedented, though the Legislature holds broad legal authority over local officials and can in theory impose most any condition it wants. But state laws cannot target individual municipalities; legislation has to apply either everywhere or to a broad group that can change over time, as laid out by the state’s highest court.
“The question is whether an artful draftsperson could draft a bill that was specifically applied to Austin and fit within this Supreme Court definition,” said Randall Erben, a former legislative director for Abbott and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
Qualms about bills targeting cities
Few major cities outside of Austin and Dallas have even discussed shrinking their police budgets in the past year, and Houston slightly increased police funding. Many smaller cities and towns are led by Republicans who are politically aligned with the governor. They could still be affected by such measures, though, if their budgets declined for any number of reasons — say, a drop in population or the end of debt payments on a bond. Some towns could buy a new police cruiser one year and not the next.
Those scenarios will likely be more heightened in coming years, as towns and cities work to dig themselves out from the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic. And it comes after Abbott led a successful push last session to cap local property tax revenue, putting a potential squeeze on municipal budgets that mostly revolve around public safety spending.
“Members of the legislature are going to be getting pressure from their people at home saying, ‘You know, this opens up a whole Pandora’s box,’” said Sherri Greenberg, a former state representative who teaches public policy at UT Austin. “But on the other hand, there still could be opportunities and various ways to, if not precisely withhold sales tax, to do other things legislatively.”
Three Republicans have filed legislation so far in the House on defunding, but none of the measures would impose any sanctions on cities. One calls for a local election if the cut is more than 5 percent, and the others simply restrict how much police spending can drop year over year.
A spokesman for House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said he anticipates more bills on the topic to be submitted before the March 12 filing deadline. Phelan, Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are “in lock-step” against police defunding, the spokesman said.
“Every community has different approaches to public safety, and the committee process will be a venue for review and discussion that will inform how our State moves forward,” Phelan’s spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for Patrick did not respond to a request for comment. Abbott’s spokeswoman did not answer emailed questions but said in a statement that the governor is “working with the legislature on the right approach.”
Winning issue for GOP
The focus on police defunding, meanwhile, could come to overshadow what Democrats had hoped would be a legislative session dedicated in part to substantive criminal justice reforms in the wake of Floyd’s death, which was captured on video and sparked nationwide protests. Phelan has made overtures toward reforms in the past and drew support in his bid for speaker from many of the same progressives now pushing those changes.
It’s not just in Texas. While many political leaders called for more creative approaches to law enforcement following Floyd’s death, top Democrats have been wary of defunding efforts. In a call with civil rights leaders in December, President Joe Biden reportedly blamed the push for down-ballot losses in November.
In a sign of perhaps just how fraught the defunding legislation could be, the Texas Municipal League, which represents the city of Austin, has not taken a public position. The group also represents the Texas Police Chiefs Association.
An Austin city spokesman declined to say whether the city was considering litigation if Abbott’s proposals move forward but said the city believes in supporting law enforcement and the type of social services that can help prevent crime from occurring.
“Without the ability to manage our own local budgets, the city cannot effectively do those things,” he said.
Even if none of Abbott’s ideas becomes law, the payoff may have already come. His press conferences and Twitter storms denouncing Austin helped Republicans rebound in key House races last fall and distracted from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Texans. The public health crisis had hurt the governor’s approval ratings.
“I think he’s already won,” Jillson said. “He’s already made his point. If he can exact a cost from Austin, his base will love that.”
jeremy.blackman@chron.com
twitter.com/jblackmanchron
"easy" - Google News
February 15, 2021 at 05:11PM
https://ift.tt/2ZjwESg
For Abbott, condemning police defunding was the easy part - Houston Chronicle
"easy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38z63U6
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "For Abbott, condemning police defunding was the easy part - Houston Chronicle"
Post a Comment