Texas Legislator Proposes ‘District of Austin’

A long-shot bill proposed by a Texas state representative would dissolve the city of Austin and create a new district that would report directly to the lieutenant governor and speaker of the House of Representatives, reports Cayla Harris in the Houston Chronicle. An article in the Dallas Morning News adds that under the proposal, “All city money, contracts, leases and property, including records, would be transferred to the district.”

The proposal comes from a conservative legislator who disagrees with the city’s “San Francisco wannabe policies.” State Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican from Frisco in North Texas, says that “Record high taxes and crime are pushing folks out of the city,” the article notes. 

Meanwhile, other state lawmakers have called the proposal a “brazen attack” on local control. According to the article, the idea is unlikely to reach the state house floor, but echoes similar proposals from the past.