AUSTIN – Director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Local Governance James Quintero issued the following statement in support of HB 2608, filed yesterday by Rep. Jim Murphy, which would return authority of state-governed municipal retirement systems back to community stakeholders. The measure provides a welcome boost to local liberty via the pathway of local control.
"Restoring local control of municipal retirement systems is a commonsense reform," said Quintero. "It’s bad policy to allow a handful of municipal retirement systems to put Austin between themselves and community stakeholders.
"Community stakeholders who work and pay taxes to support these systems deserve to have a seat at the table. The current system too often denies the right of the people to have their voices heard on local pension matters, and HB 2608 is an effort to remedy that.”
James Quintero is the Director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.