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Committee hears bill giving counties option to create family shared leave pools for employees
Summary
House Bill 334 would let counties establish family shared leave pools to help county employees take paid time to bond with newborns or care for seriously ill family members; supporters said the option improves retention and morale and imposes no added cost to counties.
The Senate Committee on Local Government heard testimony on House Bill 334, a measure sponsored in the Senate by Senator Blanco that would authorize counties to create family shared leave pools for employees.
Senator Blanco told the committee the bill would give counties the option — not the mandate — to let employees contribute leave to a pooled bank that colleagues could draw from to care for newborns, newly placed foster or adopted children, or seriously ill family members. “This bill gives counties the option to create a family shared leave pool, helping employees support their families at no added cost to the county,” Blanco said.
Witnesses from county governments described the program as a recruitment and retention tool. Adam Hayes and Charles Reed, speaking for county associations and Dallas County respectively, said catastrophic leave or pooled-leave programs have worked in some counties and that the bill follows a conservative, local-control approach. El Paso County’s Elisa Tamayo said the 2021 state model for state employees offers precedent and that counties want parity for county workers.
No opponents testified. Committee members closed public testimony and left House Bill 334 pending.
If enacted, the bill would authorize counties to adopt a shared leave pool; specifics of implementation would be determined by local county policy under the option the statute provides.
