Texas House Preliminarily Approves Bill That Penalizes Cities That Try to Decrease Police Budget
The Texas House on May 7 approved a law that would penalize the state’s largest cities if they decrease their police budgets.
House Bill 1900, authored by Republican state Reps. Craig Goldman, Will Metcalf, Greg Bonnen, and Angie Chen Button; and Democrat state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, was preliminarily approved on a 91-55 vote.
At least nine Democrats, most from small cities in South Texas, voted for the bill, according to a preliminary count.
It now awaits a final vote on the House floor before it can move to the Senate.
There’s a photograph of a wheat field in
Rahim Fortune’s new book,
I can t stand to see you cry; the pale stalks bend in the deep night sky, the crop flooded by the harsh light of Fortune’s camera flash. The photo was taken last year in Austin, Texas, on the night Fortune’s father was first hospitalised for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In two months, Fortune would witness his father’s body fail him, watching as he was taken twice more before passing away.
“The first time he was hospitalised, I made the image of the empty bed,” Fortune says, signalling to a photo of his father’s vacant room, the ceiling fan blurry as it whirrs against the Texas humidity. “That night, my sister went with me, and I made this photograph with flash in the wheat field. That image represents so much to me. It’s like the field of the abyss.”
By Austin City Council Member Greg Casar and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis
GOP lawmakers are once again attacking local communities like Harris County and Austin for daring to pursue local policies that address local concerns. They are interfering with our efforts to tackle homelessness, support mothers fleeing domestic violence, and address the public and mental health crisis amplified by the pandemic.
By way of several local budget control bills, our state officials are threatening to pull state funding to critical social services, turn local police departments into state-controlled law enforcement agencies, and starve Texas towns and cities of their tax revenue.
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