Paid leave mandates are becoming more and more contentious in the state of Texas these last few weeks as the city clerk in the city of San Antonio certified a paid family leave initiative for the November ballot. In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is already involved in litigation challenging an Austin paid leave ordinance, sent a letter to San Antonio officials advising them that state law preempts locally implemented employment benefit mandates.  The San Antonio initiative mandates one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to 48 hours for small businesses and 60 hours for those with more than 15 employees. Proponents saw the flipside of the coin come into play in Dallas as City Secretary Bilirae Johnson only certified 52,885 valid signatures, 871 short of the required 53,756 necessary to put a petition before the voters. The petitioners, a group calling itself Working Texans for Paid Sick Time, claim that the city is ignoring voters as some 30,000 signatures were disqualified as not belonging to registered voters within the city of Dallas.