We recommend voting YES on SB 15.
As amended, Senate Bill 15, otherwise known as the Consistent Employment Regulations Act (CERA), preempts the patchwork quilt of local employment regulations and streamlines standards so that job creators can focus more on their businesses and less on bureaucratic tasks.
The need for this type of legislation is obvious. Since last year, city governments like Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas have either adopted or could soon adopt ordinances that intimately interfere with the employer-employee relationship. This is creating compliance issues, causing confusion, and dulling the state’s competitiveness.
A broad-based solution is not only needed, but also widely supported.
- This month, WPAi released a new poll suggesting that a plurality of voters (40%) did not support government-mandated paid sick leave because it “allow[ed] local governments to infringe on the employees’ and employers’ freedom to negotiate terms of employment contract…”
- In 2017, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told an audience: “As opposed to the state having to take multiple rifle-shot approaches at overriding local regulations, I think a broad-based law by the state of Texas that says across the board, the state is going to pre-empt local regulations, is a superior approach.”
- Last month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a new report urging the Texas Legislature to pass legislation “prohibit[ing] any county or city from enacting an ordinance that provides for conditions of employment that conflict with or exceed state and federal law.
For these reasons, we urge the Texas Senate to pass SB 15 — the Consistent Employment Regulations Act!