Scores of Austinites and workers’ rights groups rallied at the capitol building Wednesday (May 1st) as the Texas House State Affairs committee took testimony on four bills already passed in the State senate.
One aims to roll back Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance. The Travis County GOP’s Andy Hogue believes the Ordinance’s days are numbered. He said, “I think we still have a strong republican majority in the house, and we have a narrow one in the Senate. But it already passed the senate.” Hogue said the bill could see some rewrites in the near future then, make its way to the governor’s desk.
The committee also listened to comments on bills that would prevent cities from regulating a business’ staff scheduling, benefits and hiring practices.
But the bills also have some in the business and LGBT communities fearing they could threaten anti-discrimination ordinances (NDOs). Austin Restaurateur and Paid sick leave ordinance advocate, Adam Orman said because of those fears and because these bills have been lumped together, the opposition has gained new legs and fresh faces for the fight. He said he is now cautiously optimistic the bills won’t make it through, as the protest movement against has grown too large.
Other businesses are still throwing their support behind the whole host of legislation. Among them was Austin based IT business owner, Edwardo Contreras. He said, like many small businesses, he can’t afford to keep up with the patchwork of laws as Austin’s, San Antonio’s, and now even Dallas’ paid sick leave ordinances are a bit different. As his business reaches across the state, he fears what could happen if he runs afoul of just one city. “As these cities are giving themselves the authority to audit our books, without oversight, they are also giving themselves the ability to start snooping at our personal tax records,” Contreras said this is not only distasteful, it’s also dangerous.
However, Contreras and others in the business community were not blind to the opposition’s fears that NDOs were being threatened, and would support amendments to the bills protecting them. Even State House lawmakers put forward the question about the amendment during the testimony process.
(Photo:Shutterstock/Fotoluminate LLC)
