For immediate release: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Contact: press@groundgametexas.org
 

NEW: Cities of Killeen and Harker Heights Add Ground Game Texas Initiatives to November Ballot, San Marcos Advances Initiative to City Council, City of Alton Adopts Resolution to Raise Wages of City Employees and Contractors
Voters in Killeen and Harker Heights will vote on initiative to decriminalize marijuana. 
City of Alton adopts initiative to raise minimum wage without election referendum.
San Marcos advances marijuana initiative in front of city council.

Austin, TX (Wednesday, July 27, 2022) - This week, the cities of Killeen, Harker Heights, Alton and San Marcos advanced progressive policy initiatives launched by Ground Game Texas.

On Tuesday, July 26th, 2022, the Cities of Killeen and Harker Heights, Texas advanced ballot initiatives launched by Ground Game Texas to decriminalize marijuana. The organization successfully submitted sufficient petition signatures for the Killeen Freedom Act of 2022 in May and the Harker Heights Freedom Act of 2022 in June, respectively. 

Additionally on Tuesday, the city commission in Alton, Texas approved a resolution to raise the minimum wage for city employees and contractors to $15/hour by 2025, following Ground Game Texas's submission of a petition signed by hundreds of Alton voters.

On Wednesday, July 27, the City of San Marcos, Texas certified the San Marcos Freedom Act of 2022, an initiative launched by Ground Game Texas and Mano Amiga to eliminate enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses. The organizations successfully submitted signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot in June. The initiative will now appear in front of the San Marcos City Council for adoption or placement on the November ballot. 

"Across the state, Ground Game Texas organizers are demonstrating the power of grassroots organizing to affect progressive change and reinvigorate the electorate," said Julie Oliver, Executive Director of Ground Game Texas. "Thanks to the tireless work of our organizers, city employees and contractors in Alton will now see a boost in their wages, all without needing to approve an initiative on the ballot. And in Killeen, Harker Heights, and San Marcos, our team will be able to register new voters and boost turnout in these communities by mobilizing voters behind common-sense marijuana reform. That's how Ground Game Texas is bringing progressive change to our state--from the ground, up."

Earlier this week, Ground Game Texas and Sunrise El Paso successfully submitted signatures to secure a ballot initiative in El Paso to create a citywide climate charter that will create green jobs, conserve water, encourage solar power generation, and reduce the city's contribution to climate change. In May, Ground Game Texas passed an initiative in Austin to decriminalize marijuana and ban "No-Knock" warrants by local police with more than 85% support from voters. 

Since its founding one year ago, Ground Game Texas has launched ten ballot campaigns across the state of Texas to register new voters and mobilize the electorate behind progressive change. 

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About Ground Game Texas
Ground Game Texas is a voter engagement and mobilization organization founded by Register2Vote leaders Julie Oliver and Mike Siegel in 2021. Based in Austin, Ground Game Texas seeks to organize voters community-by-community, collaborating with partners on the ground to meet voters at their doors and push for popular progressive policies across the state of Texas.