By Ed Sterling.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Nov. 4 announced he had filed a lawsuit challenging guidelines issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that “limit the ability of employers – including the State of Texas and its agencies – from categorically excluding convicted felons from employment,” he said.
Abbott said the hiring guidelines the EEOC adopted in 2012 “prohibit Texas and its agencies from categorically excluding convicted felons for certain jobs.”
In the lawsuit, Abbott alleges the guidelines are unlawful because they overstep the federal agency’s statutory authority “and improperly bully the State and its agencies into jeopardizing the safety of Texans.”
Abbott seeks a declaratory judgment that the state and its agencies “are entitled to maintain and enforce state laws and policies that absolutely bar convicted felons – or a certain category of convicted felons – from government employment; a declaration that the EEOC cannot enforce its guidelines against the State of Texas – and an injunction that bars the EEOC from issuing right-to-sue letters to persons seeking to pursue this type of discrimination charge against the State of Texas or any of its agencies; and a judgment holding unlawful and setting aside the EEOC’s hiring guidelines.”
Unit issues identification
A Texas Department of Public Safety on Nov. 5 announced a mobile disaster unit has been deployed to central Texas to issue replacement Texas driver licenses and replacement Texas identification cards to victims who lost those documents as a result of the severe storms and flooding that recently impacted that area of the state.
Tax revenue increases
State Comptroller Susan Combs on Nov. 6 announced state sales tax revenue in October was $2.14 billion, up 5.4 percent compared to October 2012.
Combs said she would send cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts their November local sales tax allocations totaling $654.6 million, up 7 percent compared to November 2012.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the organization.
