House Speaker Dennis Bonnen may be gone, but the fight over local control continues

Prior to and during the Legislature’s last session, readers may recall, I tried to sound the alarm about the disdain many of our state lawmakers have for local governments.

Some of the feedback I received was that my concerns were unfounded and that our representatives were only trying to cut property taxes.

Never mind that none of what they were doing would result in homeowners’ taxes being slashed. It sounded good, anyway, and that’s all we needed to know to tune out their actions, which threaten our rights as citizens to control the government.

The attacks on home-rule powers, long the purview of city and county voters, would seriously set back our quality of life.

Excuse me if I now feel exonerated, but I do.

When Empower Texans lobbyist Michael Quinn Sullivan ratted out two of the most powerful men in the Legislature, my fears of what was afoot were dramatically eclipsed.

Concerns that they wanted to eviscerate the privileges of city and county officials and the voters who put them in office proved to be on target. But it went well beyond matters of public policy. Their motives were exposed as full on hatred of local governments.

Hatred — really?

Let the powerful House speaker, Dennis Bonnen, make it crystal clear what he thinks about local elected officials. He told Sullivan: “Any mayor, county judge that was dumbass enough to come meet with me, I told them with great clarity, my goal is for this to be the worst session in the history of the Legislature for cities and counties.”

His top political lieutenant, Rep. Dustin Burrows, added his perspective: “I hope the next session’s even worse. … We hate cities and counties.”

The reaction across the state has been visceral. The Texas Municipal League’s posted statement sums it up: “All Texans, especially the mayors and county judges who Dennis Bonnen referred to as ‘dumbass enough to meet’ with him, now know what we are dealing with.”

The organization nailed it perfectly by saying it was appalling that Bonnen, R-Angelton, “fails to recognize that pursuing his personal vendetta will ultimately harm Texans who live in our cities.”

That goes to the heart of the matter. It is not just local elected officials that have been targeted. It’s every citizen who loses their fundamental freedoms to decide for themselves what they want their local governments to do for them.

KCBD-TV in Lubbock, the city represented by Burrows, reported that more than half the 64-member State Republican Executive Committee, including the party’s vice chairman, had signed onto a statement concluding that Bonnen should resign as speaker.

Saying he won’t seek re-election is the next best thing, but, as Bonnen’s time in office is ending, what we now know to be ingrained in the nasty work of the Legislature, masquerading as “tax reform,” threatens our cities, counties and all their residents.

Already on their agenda for the next session are plans to deny cities their rights to have their own watchdogs inside the Capitol to monitor legislation harmful to local communities.

Voters should demand to know from every one of their representatives in both houses if they plan to support local control and if they will cease any actions that would diminish those powers.

Now the question is: Will we act to protect the individual rights of a free society or watch them compromised as decisions about our hometowns are put beyond our reach?

This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 5:02 AM.