Democratic Priorities in the 2019 Texas Legislature

Last week I wrote about how the election results changed the makeup of the state legislature and courts here in Texas. Here’s a look at what that change means to you and me in terms of over 400 pieces of legislation filed on opening day of pre-filing with the state legislature based on analysis by the Texas AFL-CIO.

There was more good than bad for workers in that first batch including a strong group of bills raising wages, strengthening pensions and other workplace benefits, expanding health care and improving access to higher education were filed as well as addressing sexual harassment.

First the bad, HB 222 by Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, would eliminate the ability of cities to enact earned paid sick leave ordinances. The ordinances, like those recently enacted in Austin and San Antonio, could provide hundreds of thousands of Texans the freedom to stay home when they are ill, are under challenge in court as well. Keep in mind that this issue is about more than benefitting employees since it actually protects other employees and customers from contact that could spread the disease further. Think about the restaurant worker who feels the need to work with the flu so they can pay the next month’s rent or put food on the table for their family.

SB 32 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would establish the Texas Promise Grant Program to pay tuition and fees for Texas students whose annual household incomes are less than $150,000; SB 33 by Zaffirini specifically addresses two-year colleges.

HB 48 by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, would create a publicly available database of employers who have been found to have committed wage theft. As it stands now business owners can get fined for stealing from their employees and then weeks later start it all over again with new employees who have little chance of finding out that the person hiring them is likely to steal from them. Should Rep. Gonzalez’s bill be passed into law there would be a website that prospective employees could check to see of a business makes a habit of stealing wages before it happens to them. Having such information widely available should also provide a deterrent to employers as such behavior will become widely known in the community and they’ll be shamed for it in addition to finding it harder to find good workers. In addition HB 83 by Rep. Romero raises penalties for repeated failure to pay wages and HB 106 by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, would increase protections against employer retaliation when an employee files a claim for unpaid wages.

HB 56 by Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, would provide for cost-of-living adjustments on pensions for retired teachers; SBs 92, 93 and 94 by Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, would add a supplemental "13th payment" for retirees and otherwise shore up the Teacher Retirement System.

HB 133 by Rep. Terry Canales, would make it state law that tips are solely the property of tipped employees and therefore the practice that some restaurant and bar operators of claiming a percentage of tips for themselves would be outlawed.

Minimum wage is a big issue that several bills address, HB 194 by Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, would raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour; HB 290 by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, would raise the minimum to $10.10 an hour; SB 113 by Sen. Jose Menendez would set the wage at $10.10 an hour, as would SJR 5, his constitutional amendment proposal. SB 161 by Sen. Rodriguez would allow cities and counties to set local minimum wages.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 16, 2018

Republican Plot to Kill Paid Sick Leave

How do you feel about going into a restaurant or fast food place and being served by someone who is obviously ill? How would you feel if they were sick but you couldn’t tell just by looking or their behavior? How do you feel about your child being served by someone sick? What if it is another kind of retailer or an office you work in?

It’s important to consider this because not every employer provides paid sick leave and that encourages people who are paid at or near minimum wage to work even when sick. We all understand that many illnesses like the flu are easily transmitted from one person to another and we even have a word for an action taken to stop the spread of especially virulent strains, that word is quarantine. If you’re ill and don’t have some overwhelming reason to be out and about most people will self-quarantine just because they don’t feel like doing anything other than staying home in bed or on the sofa.

Low income folks without paid sick leave often are compelled to work even when quite ill by the need to make the rent or buy groceries for their family. Instead of self-quarantining they then interact with dozens of people and run the risk of infecting some of them. Many businesses recognize that having sick people at work just makes it more likely for other members of the staff to become sick as well and therefore offer paid sick leave.

In an effort to address the health concerns of the public who may shop at or otherwise visit locations where the employer encourages ill staff to work the cities of Austin has passed a paid sick leave ordinance. In San Antonio citizens have gathered 140,000 signatures on a petition to get a proposition to create a paid sick leave ordinance on the November ballot.

So far this seems quite reasonable but our Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton (R), claims the Texas Minimum Wage Act preempts cities from enacting a paid sick leave ordinance. I’ve read the legislation, nowhere in it does it even mention sick leave. AG Paxton isn’t the only one on this crazy horse, our state senator, Donna Campbell (R), sent the mayor of San Antonio a letter urging him to block such an ordinance on the grounds that employers don’t like it. According to her letter some members of the business community have taken exception to the proposition on the grounds that it will cause them to lose business opportunities. This is typical Republican logic, make poor, sick people work until they drop and the heck with the health consequences for everyone else because “job creators” need every penny.

Sen. Campbell and AG Paxton just don’t get that employers aren’t job creators, customers are, and when you sicken your customers and your other employees you’re really just hurting your own bottom line. Worse they don’t care about the public health issues created by forcefully encouraging sick people to expose themselves to the general public. Given that Campbell is an emergency room doctor you’d think she’d know better but as in other cases in the past Campbell has let her raging right wing agenda override her professional judgement.

In about 90 days you and I will have an opportunity to send her a resounding message that her failure to look out for the health and well-being of the citizens of her district and all of Texas are unacceptable by electing Steve Kling as our new state senator for Senate District 25.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 10, 2018