20-03-2025
‘Throwing stones': Lawmaker behind District of Austin bill challenged in hearing
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas leaders challenged a Houston-area representative who authored House Bill 274, which would strip the city of Austin of its governing authority and turn it into the District of Austin.
'House Bill 274 is a simple bill, it seeks to establish a District of Austin as the official city of Texas government,' said Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Houston, at the House State Affairs Committee Wednesday. 'Ensuring the capital city remains accountable to the state that it represents.'
It's not the first time a bill has been filed to force state control onto the city of Austin. North Texas Rep. Jared Patterson filed a similar bill in 2022. The director of the Donaldson Center for Communication Studies at the University of Texas told KXAN that Patterson's 2022 bill was nothing more than 'a heavy dose of political theater.'
That description could also describe Wednesday's hearing on HB 274.
'For years, staffers, constituents and even our own family members visiting the capital face rising fears due to surging crime in Austin,' Cain said. 'The city's leadership has repeatedly made reckless decisions: defunding the police, refusing to prosecute violent criminals and allowing businesses to go unchecked.'
Several state lawmakers on the committee challenged Cain on those remarks, including Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas.
Anchía pulled up a website analyzing crime data, which rates cities on an A through F scale. He proceeded to quiz Cain on crime ratings for Deer Park, a city in Cain's district, versus the city of Austin.
'Austin is actually slightly better … violent crime grade was actually a C, rather than a C- for Deer Park. Should we use the Mississippi example and do that to provide a special district to Deer Park?' Anchía said.
Cain rebutted that Deer Park isn't the state's capital nor is a majority of state government conducted there. He also said 'we've consistently had issues with this city' and that it wasn't necessarily crime that led to his bill. However, his presentation of the bill focused on crime as a central arguement.
'There's a parable in the Bible about a glass house and throwing stones. I think it's John 8:1-11. I would ask you to reflect,' Anchía finished. You can watch the full interaction here.
Cain didn't cite a specific report for his claim about Austin's crime rates, but said that violent crime in the city had increased since 2019.
So what does the data say? Data from the city of Austin and the Texas Department of Public Safety both show similar crime trends for Austin. The overall crime rate, as reported to DPS, decreased roughly 8% from 2019 to 2023, according to DPS' 2023 Crime in Texas report.
That report shows a 26% increase in Austin's violent crime between 2019 to 2023. But it also shows a 7% decrease between 2022 to 2023.
Some police departments, like Deer Park in Harris County, are not large enough for inclusion in DPS's annual Crime in Texas report.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office reported a 14.7% increase in its crime rate during the same five-year time period. It also reported a more significant increase in crime over that extended time period — up by nearly 40% from 2019 to 2023 and by more than 10% from 2022 to 2023.
After the city of Austin moved to reform its police budget in 2020, state lawmakers stepped in to make sure that didn't happen. In Texas, large cities can't cut any funding from their police department without losing property and sales tax revenue.
For consecutive years since then, APD has received a 'record high' budget as a result. It received a roughly $18 million bump this past budget season. City policymakers continuously remind the public during budget sessions that the APD budget can't be cut due to state law.
Texas Legislature passes bill requiring largest cities to hold elections before cutting police funds
As for 'refusing to prosecute,' city government has no control over court cases.
Whether or not violent criminals are prosecuted is the responsibility of Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, an elected official. KXAN has done extensive reporting on the data of Garza's tenure.
The city of Austin directly addressed Cain's bill in a memo released Wednesday night:
HB 274 District of AustinDownload
It unsurprisingly opposed the notion, and the city's Intergovernmental Relations Office wrote that the bill is 'vague' and lacks clarity on how the District of Austin would be governed. State lawmakers also expressed those concerns during the committee meeting.
The memo also responded to the bill's rhetoric about Austin's crime rate, economic opportunity and governing style.
'Austin's Violent Crime Rate for 2024 is 59.6% lower than Houston, 43.8% lower than Lubbock, and 21.4% lower than San Antonio according to the Texas Department of Public Safety Uniform Crime Reporting System Crime in Texas Report Top 25 Violent Crime Comparison report,' reads the memo, addressing Cain's chief argument for the District of Austin being necessary.
It's unclear what Cain referred to by saying Austin was 'allowing businesses to go unchecked.' The city of Austin responded to that as well, writing that Austin has been 'the best performing economy among the top 50 metros in the United States over the last five years,' with its GDP up 39%.
'Austin ranks eighth for 4.5% growth over the last year,' the memo reads, 'Austin is the tenth best performing in job growth among the top 50 metros, adding 22,700 jobs, or 1.7% growth, in the year ending in December.'
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