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Local Control In Texas

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Macias 1
Maria Macias #1883712 2017SP GOVT 2306-73434 Local Control in Texas May 2, 2017 Local Control in Texas Do you know the difference in power between state legislature and local control? Let me begin by giving you some background information. 1 According to Konni Burton, “Counties, cities, and all manner of special purpose districts (which include our independent school districts) are creations of the state government. They exist at the sole discretion of the state; receive their responsibilities, powers, and restrictions from the state; and are subject to the direction of the state.” (Burton) In Texas, there are many municipalities which are known as “home-rule” cities which have a “population of more than 5,000 that has, in accordance …show more content…

Their primary goal is to defend local control for the benefit of their communities and citizens. The first article that relates to fracking, explains that Texas senators and Texas representatives received large campaign contributions from oil and gas industries. For that reason, they believe Texas senators and representatives were against local city ordinances adopted that were in place to protect public health and safety. The next article talks about how some of the biggest polluters are large companies that fail to pay fines or clean up their sites. Their argument is that they would like more freedom to penalize these polluting industries for the safety and well-being of their communities. (Texas Vox) The final article was related to the plastic bag ban and surcharge, which according to Governor Abbott was what he would consider overregulation; this ban was later …show more content…

“Both the House and Senate versions would ban cities, counties and universities from prohibiting law enforcement officers from asking about a person’s immigration status or enforcing immigration law.” (Dallas News) In this case, local government would be penalized and fined if they went against this ban. It is very unfortunate because a lot of innocent undocumented people would now be afraid to report any form of crime from fear of deportation. I believe that it is the responsibility of all branches of government including local to determine what is best for their citizens but it is equally important for them to carefully review the effects that any laws or regulations will have one the community as a whole and not just target specific groups.
4 Works Cited "Local Control Archives." TexasVox: 4 The Voice of Public Citizen in Texas. N.p., n.d. 5 http://www.texasvox.org/tag/local-control/ Web. 6 01 May 2017.
Matt Rinaldi. 4 "Liberty Trumps Local Control, by Matt Rinaldi." TribTalk. 6 N.p., 12 Mar. 2015. 5 https://www.tribtalk.org/2015/03/12/liberty-trumps-local-control/ Web. 6 01 May 2017.
Burton, Konni. 6 "Local Control: 1 A Tool, Not The Rule." Empower Texans. 7 N.p., 11 Oct. 2016. https://empowertexans.com/commentary/local-control-a-tool-not-the-rule/ Web. 6 01 May

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