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Legislation to make it difficult for cities to cut police funding moves forward
Legislation to make it more difficult for cities like Austin to cut police funding is moving forward in the Texas legislature. The news comes on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Texas native George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has more.
AUSTIN, Texas - Legislation to make it more difficult for cities like Austin to cut police funding is moving forward in the Texas legislature.
The news comes on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Texas native George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. George Floyd grew up in Houston, and his death led to protests in Austin and across the country—with many calling for the defunding of police. A year later, lawmakers at the Texas Capitol are giving the green light to two bills to try and prevent cities from doing just that.
One of those bills, House Bill 1900, would penalize cities that cut public safety funding. That bill, which passed the Texas Senate late Monday, would then reallocate part of a city’s sales tax to reimburse the police budget. It would also ban so-called "defunding cities" from increasing property tax.
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Meanwhile, the Texas House passed Senate Bill 23, which would require an election if local governments in urban counties like Travis want to cut police funding. Voters would then have to approve those cuts in order for them to take effect.
Some Democrats question why the bill only applies to the five Texas counties with populations over a million—and does not address other counties with high crime rates. Republicans, however, argue this is a genuine attempt to make Texas communities safer.
"This bill is a fair minded, balanced, and actually community driven approach to weighing in on these issues. I think it contemplates that there may be situations where a community is united in changing the way that they provide public safety," said Republican State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress.
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The bill is now headed to Governor Greg Abbott's desk where he is expected to sign it. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has details.
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"This is tyranny. This an overreach in government," said Democratic State Rep. Jarvis Johnson of Houston. "Those five counties are Democratically-run counties We have gotten to the point where y'all aren't even embarrassed by what y'all are doing."
Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign both of these bills. Abbott shared a tweet from Austin Police Association president Ken Casaday about a shooting call Sunday morning which Casaday claims took 16 minutes for APD to respond to because there were no officers available. Abbott added, "This is what defunding the police looks like." FOX 7 Austin has not been able to confirm the response time Casaday referenced with Austin Police.
Last year Austin City Council voted unanimously to cut its police budget by 1/3, or $150 million. That money was reallocated to other city services.