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Restaurant owners push back against local dine-in curfew orders
Restaurant owners are pushing back against the city of Austin and Travis County's recent order closing restaurants and bars on New Year's Eve.
AUSTIN, Texas - The state sued the city of Austin and Travis County saying the restaurant dine-in curfew violates state executive orders.
The parties were in court Thursday, mere hours before the curfew was set to begin.
"Mayor Adler and the county judge, two days before New Year's Eve, late at night, after business hours, dropped their own local orders, closing down businesses during certain late night and early morning hours with direct contradiction of state law," said Aaron Reitz, attorney general for legal strategy with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
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Some Austin businesses planning to ignore NYE weekend curfew
Bar and restaurant owners are reacting to the curfew that will be enforced over NYE weekend.
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Restaurant owners are pushing back against the local orders.
"Here we are coming into one of the biggest weekends to try to end the year where our employees can make some money to pay rent, car payments, not to mention we need to make property tax payment, and they close us down with a 48 hours notice," said Skeeter Miller, owner of County Line BBQ Restaurants.
Austin officials say code enforcement will be out in the entertainment districts, handing out citations if need be.
RELATED: State vs. City: Battle over Austin curfew heads to court
"You may get a citation but you don’t pay it at that point. You have a constitutional right to fight that ticket in court," said first assistant attorney general Brent Webster.
The city argues that the orders do not violate the state law, because they are narrowly tailored and are only operational constraints. Zack Malitz with the Boot Texas Republicans PAC said Austin is doing the right thing for public health.
"They are actively interfering with local leaders' ability to implement common-sense public health regulations like closing down bars on New Year's Eve," said Malitz.
RELATED: City of Austin to limit dine-in hours starting December 31
The state didn't take legal action against Bexar County's Thanksgiving curfew. Malitz says Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott are picking on Austin.
"They score political points by picking fights with Austin's local government. What we've seen is a catastrophic failure by state republicans including Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton to protect Texans' lives during a pandemic, 27,000 people have died," said Malitz.
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