Houston Mayor Turner Snaps Back At Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick In Op-Ed

HOUSTON, TX — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last Friday blamed big-city governments controlled by Democrats as the root of nationwide problems during an interview on national television with Fox Business Network. Many Texas Democratic mayors chimed in, including Houston's Sylvester Turner in a op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle.

Turner wrote that Houston was the launching pad of not only NASA, but also the professional and political careers of Patrick and current Governor Greg Abbott. He wrote that it's "time to remember what big cities mean to Texas and what Texas means to big cities."

"It's time to focus on the truths that make the super-cities of Texas the successes that they are," Turner wrote in his piece in The Chronicle. "With Houston in the lead, urban areas of Texas are the economic engines of the state. Every single day the magnet that is Houston pulls in newly minted college graduates, start-up entrepreneurs, eager laborers, free-spending tourists, business developers, home-buyers, conventioneers, legal eagles, artists, would-be astronauts, chefs, chemists, geologists, rodeoers and more."

During the TV interview last week, Patrick said the general populous would rather depend on state officials than the ones who control local taxes and things like water, trash and infrastructures like roads and public works.

"People are happy with their governments at their state level, they're not with the city," said Patrick, a Republican, in an interview with Fox Business Network. He was responding to a question about gubernatorial races. "Our cities are still controlled by Democrats. And where do we have all our problems in America? Not at the state level run by Republicans, but in our cities that are mostly controlled by Democrat mayors and Democrat city council men and women. That's where you see liberal policies. That's where you see high taxes. That's where you see street crime."

Turner wasn't the only Texas Democrat mayor to chime in. Austin Mayor Steve Adler took to Twitter:

"If it's wrong to have lower jobless and crime rates than Texas as a whole, I don't want to be right. Certainly not that far right."

The Texas Tribune reports that controversial bills are still going through state legislature, like local elections to approve property tax increases and the bathroom bill that has stirred debate within the state as well as the nation.

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, a Republican, said city governments are far closer to the local residents than those who meet in Austin.

"We are closer to our residents than the state is or the federal government, so we know what is best for our community because we are responsible for our community,” said Margo. “Not only is El Paso the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border, we’re also ranked as the safest city in the nation."

Of the six largest cities in Texas, Margo and Fort Worth's Betsy Price are the only Republicans. Price said many of the issues facing large metro areas aren't partisan politics.

"The fact that city elections are nonpartisan is one of the greatest things about city government,” said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League. "We like to say that potholes aren’t Democratic or Republican ... it costs the same amount regardless of ideology."

As for Houston Mayor Turner, he further explained that Houston is a world-class city that's rising higher and better than ever.

"It didn't surprise me in May when the U-Haul moving company announced that Houston had been the No. 1 destination in 2016 for people moving from one American place to another," Turner wrote in his op-ed piece. "Houston is ranked the second-best city in the world (as reported by Business Insider magazine) due to relatively low living costs and ease of settling in; the fourth-best U.S. city for young entrepreneurs (MoneyRates.com); and the No. 1 "coolest" American city (Forbes magazine).

"These rankings should make Texans wonder: If Houston and other big cities in the Lone Star State are thriving, why are some of our most powerful elected leaders so determined to trash and thrash them?"

This surely isn't the end of barbs between the state's top leaders against the leaders of major cities in the state.

Photo via City of Houston