Republicans who run the Texas state government recently extended a $10 billion corporate subsidy program while cutting 1.3 million jobless workers off federal unemployment benefits. Now, they are using their power to block local communities from slowing down mass evictions — which would be a huge jackpot for the real estate industry that has dumped more than $14 million into the state’s most recent elections.

This weekend, Republican lawmakers — who often tout the importance of “local control” — rammed a bill through the state senate that preempts the enforcement of local laws designed to protect tenants. The bill declares that “a municipality or county may not adopt or enforce an ordinance, order or other regulation that delays, prohibits, or restricts the execution” of an eviction or “has the effect of causing financial damages to a landlord.”

The legislation came a few weeks after eviction protections were extended in Austin, where the eviction rate has been among the lowest in the state and the country. It also follows the Koch-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation leading a legal battle in Texas to overturn the federal COVID-19 pandemic eviction moratorium.