Ground Game Texas [[link removed]]
John,

Many of you have heard about some of the awful bills passed in the 2023 Texas Legislative Session. One question we’ve been getting a lot is: “Can Ground Game Texas still do ballot measure campaigns?”

The answer is a definite yes. Despite passing numerous laws that negatively impact so many of us, and despite concerted right-wing efforts to reduce local control and local democracy, Ground Game still has a clear path to win important local reforms and turn out voters across the state.

Read more below for “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” from the 2023 Legislative session, in terms of new laws that impact our work.

Ground Game Texas is working on all fronts to build progressive power in Texas. Through petitions, elections, advocacy, education, and even legal action, we are winning important gains statewide. Please chip in $25 or more today. [[link removed]]

“The Good”

Although silver linings are hard to find, in terms of petition campaigns at the city level, we lived to fight another day. The Texas Legislature was considering greatly limiting the petition power—one idea had the Secretary of State deciding on ballot language; another gave the Attorney General the right to keep a petition off the ballot—but none of the petition reform efforts passed.

That means we can continue to organize city by city, collecting signatures for policies like a $15/hr minimum wage or local marijuana reform, and pushing elections that engage voters from key constituencies.

“The Bad”

To be clear, the list of “bad” laws coming out of the Legislature is extremely long, including new laws targeting worker safety regulations, transgender children, voting rights and more. This email is focused on laws that impact the petition campaigns of Ground Game Texas.

On that front, the bad news is that because of our organizing in El Paso for a “Climate Charter” that would encourage local action on climate change, the Texas Legislature passed a law that outlawed any “Climate Charter” in any city across Texas.

That’s right — along with El Paso community organizers, last year we invented a new tactic, to amend Texas city charters to promote climate action. One legislative session later, no Texas city is allowed to even consider such an action.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the Oil & Gas industry sponsored this law.

“The Ugly”

One of the most sweeping and horribly damaging laws that came out of the Legislature is HB 2127, which was labeled the “Death Star” bill. This law was an extreme reaction from conservative and business groups in opposition to local efforts to organize for worker protections. For example, cities like Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio passed measures to ensure paid sick leave for local workers. The business community responded by winning legislation that prevents any local ordinance that raises standards beyond the minimum required by state law.

The most extreme example of this, given the summer we’ve had in Texas, is a ban on local requirements for water breaks for construction workers. That’s how cruel this legislature is.

Ground Game has been organizing on a related issue, to win wage increases for city workers, and we’ve won $15/hr campaigns in two cities in South Texas. These campaigns aren’t impacted, however, because they involve cities deciding how to spend their own funds, instead of regulations on private business.

Ok, that’s the sum-up. Not great news by any means. But we remain committed to doing this work, to organizing in communities across the state, to building power for long-term change. Please consider a contribution today. [[link removed]]

Working for the future,

Mike Siegel
Political Director
Ground Game TexasGround Game Texas is a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Paid for by Ground Game Texas. Contributions to Ground Game Texas are not tax deductible.

This email was sent to [email protected] [#] .

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[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]PO Box 310, Austin, TX 78767 | [email protected] [[email protected]]