Arlington chamber looks to fend off Texas Legislature’s attacks on home rule

Even before the next president takes the oath of office, the future of Texans’ power to shape their lives and their communities will begin to be decided by their representatives in Austin.

As the Legislature convenes Jan. 12, much is at stake for all of us. The state’s agenda, already in the making, will unfold, and we should be making our desires known to those we have sent there to carry out our will.

Critical decisions that affect us all will have been made by the time adjournment comes around 140 days later, and we don’t want to be looking back at what happened and wish it had been something more to our liking.

The Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce has been working for months, surveying its members and meeting with legislators and their staffs, to develop its preference on the issues and probably the city’s most comprehensive examination of concerns we all face.

The resulting position paper that represents the great majority of the Chamber’s membership has been approved by its board of directors and provided to the area’s representatives in the Texas House and Senate.

For the sake of full disclosure, I recently served as a member of that board and on the Chamber’s public policy committee.

“Our agenda,” the overview of the report reads, “seeks the continuation of the economic success our state and region currently enjoy by creating sound policies that ensure we have the necessary tools, talent, infrastructure and healthcare systems for economic and community prosperity.”

Supporting a robust local economy leads to benefits for all citizens through job creation and corporate investment that shifts property tax burdens from residents to the commercial sector.

The centerpiece of this objective is to leave the decisions of how to shape cities in the hands of their citizens. In recent sessions of the Legislature, there have been wrong-headed efforts to shift that power to the state.

Such proposals are contrary to the foundational principle of self-government. The home rule form of government has helped make Texas cities the fastest growing in the nation.

That’s why economic development strategies tops the list of priorities in support of high paying jobs in high-poverty areas and support for retraining displaced workers using a combination of community colleges, workforce boards and private employers.

Then there’s strong positions on healthcare, calling for maximizing federal matching funds to extend coverage to the working poor, self-employed and uninsured Texans through public and private markets.

In the area of public education, the chamber is calling for emergency funds to make adjustments required by the global pandemic and the elimination of unfunded mandates leading to higher property taxes.

There’s support for dual-credit courses, early-college high schools, and Advanced Placement testing to reduce the number of credit hours required after high school and make college more affordable.

Community and state infrastructure needs are identified, including advocacy for the use of public-private partnerships to leverage state funds for transportation needs and the expansion of broadband to every county providing basic access for distance learning and telemedicine.

You can see from just this sample of initiatives that the chamber’s purpose is to grow the entire community’s quality of life through the rising tide of economic prosperity. It’s a great demonstration of how doing so lifts all boats.

That’s especially important for ordinary citizens in those boats, and it suggests ways for them all to contribute to the high calling of demanding that our legislators protect our powers to decide for ourselves how we want to be governed and how to shape our hometowns.