It’s time for the week that was in Texas politics with Alana Rocha, multimedia reporter at The Texas Tribune.
The city of Dallas passed a paid sick leave measure earlier this week, despite a bill at the Texas Capitol that could ban such ordinances.
“The mayor didn’t vote for this,” Rocha says. “He said, ‘Look, I’m for paid sick leave and requiring companies to do that, but I don’t think this will be implemented in any meaningful way, whether the legislature gets that bill through or courts stop it.’”
Rocha says the legislation, authored by Republican Sen. Michael Creighton, was meant to be a “slam dunk” that would thwart cities’ ability to mandate that employers offer sick leave. But controversy has since broken it up into four bills.
“Those four bills have just been referred … over in the house, so there’s still a long way to go,” Rocha says.
The Texas Senate rolled out its plan for school finance and property tax reform, and it differs significantly from the House’s proposal.
“This new version the Senate rolled out last night has $5,000 pay raises for teachers, and also put in some things the house had nixed, like tying some of the school district funding to test scores, which have been controversial,” Rocha says.
The legislature also made headway on a plan to potentially eliminate daylight saving time. Rocha says the House showed broad support for letting Texans vote on it, and if it passes in the Senate, there will be two measures to consider.
“One would be a referendum on whether Texans can weigh in on eliminating daylight savings or address it at all, and then the second measure would have Texans choose,” Rocha says.
Written by Sara Schleede.
