After the Austin City Council voted to defund its police department, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other top GOP leaders proposed freezing the ability to raise property taxes of any other city that makes a similar move.
On Tuesday, Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dennis Bonnen announced the proposal, reported the Houston Chronicle.
“Any city that defunds police departments will have its property tax revenue frozen at the current level,” Abbott said. “They will never be able to increase property tax revenue again if they defund police.”
Patrick said that what the Austin City Council did “should never happen in any city in the state, and we’re going to pass legislation to be sure it never happens again.”
Bonnen said in an email that the proposal “will disincentivize cities like Austin from compromising the safety of residents and stop them from using our law enforcement as a political prop.”
In Texas, the Republican-majority state legislature meets only every other year, and this is their off-year.
The Austin City Council voted unanimously to move one-third of the police budget to its “Decouple and Reimagine Safety” funds, emphasizing the use of social workers to handle social issues such as homelessness, mental health and domestic disturbances.
Austin City Council member Greg Casar said the council wants to ease the burden on police.
“The message from the tens of thousands of Austinites who made their voices heard in this year’s budget process was clear: We must decrease our over-reliance on police to handle all of our complex public safety challenges and instead reinvest in domestic violence shelters, mental health first responders, and more,” he said in a statement.
“That’s what our City Council did — and it’s exactly the work we’re committed to continue.”
