The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin, announced it will file a challenge to the city of Austin's paid sick leave ordinance Tuesday, April 24. The TPPF's litigation wing, the Center for American Future, represents a coalition of business associations, including the Texas Association of Business, the American Staffing Association and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a nonprofit think tank that receives a majority of its funding from Freedom Partners, a conservative economic policy group whose board is made up primarily of Koch Industries-affiliated members. "With its mandatory paid sick leave ordinance, the City of Austin once again violates Texas state law and infringes upon the rights of Austin business protected by the Texas Constitution," said Robert Henneke, director of the Center for the American Future, in a news release. In response to the announcement, a city spokesperson said in a statement that the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit but is aware of the TPPF's plans to challenge the ordinance. "We stand by the ordinance and are prepared to defend the city in court," the spokesperson said. The ordinance, which was passed by City Council 9-2 on Feb. 16, requires private businesses that operate in Austin to provide paid sick leave to their employees. It is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1. "Government-mandated paid sick leave is short-sighted and ultimately counterproductive," TPPF policy analyst Bryan Mathew said in a Feb. 16 news release. "The way to help Austin's working families is to lower the regulations that make it hard to businesses to start, compete and expand in the city, not to pile on new ones." In a response to the TPPF's announcement Tuesday morning, District 4 Council Member Greg Casar, who sponsored the ordinance, released a statement. "Everyday Austinites fought and won paid sick days because it's a common-sense approach to address our serious health and safety needs. In today's lawsuit, anti-worker groups admitted that they don't comprehend why paid sick days are so important to everyday people," he said. "Working families in Austin aren't going to let these out-of-touch groups take away our right to self-determination or our right to a fair workplace." Work Strong Austin, a coalition of paid sick leave advocates, released a statement characterizing the lawsuit as a "cowardly, desperate and shameful" attempt to "undermine the democratic process and take away this basic human right and public health protection from 223,000 working families" who stand to benefit from the ordinance once it takes effect.