Texas lawmaker is targeting publicly funded lobbying. Will restrictions pass this session?

Yahoo

26-02-2025

Sen. Mayes Middleton is taking aim at local taxing entities' long-standing ability to hire lobbyists to help them navigate the Texas Legislature.
The Republican state senator from Galveston recently filed Senate Bill 19, which would prevent local governments, such as school districts and cities, from hiring lobbyists with public money or paying dues to organizations that lobby on their behalf.
"Nearly $70 million per year is spent on taxpayer-funded lobbying," Middleton said in a statement last week. "We don't need an Austin lobbyist middleman between state and local elected officials. We are elected to represent our constituents directly."
Cities, school districts and other local jurisdictions in Texas often hire lobbyists to advocate at the Capitol for their interests — which Middleton said contradicts the interests of taxpayers.
Additionally, many local governments are members of organizations that hire lobbyists to collectively advocate for the shared interests of their particular sector. Governments usually pay membership dues to the associations in exchange for the services.
One such organization is the Texas Association of School Boards, a named target of Middleton's legislation, which drew the ire of some Republican lawmakers last session for its opposition to school vouchers.
"Taxpayer-funded lobbying groups, like Texas Association of School Boards, use your school tax dollars to lobby against the bill to stop men from going into girls' restrooms and locker rooms, and invited transgender advocates to train school board members on how to use pronouns," Middleton said in his statement. "Time and time again, we have seen taxpayer-funded lobbyists advocate against Texans and against common sense."
Middleton has long sought to end the practice of local taxing entities hiring lobbyists. He filed his first bill on the topic during his first session in the Texas House in 2019, and he has filed similar legislation each session since, including after his election to the Senate. Each of those proposals has died in the House.
The movement could see renewed momentum in the 89th Legislature with newly elected Speaker Dustin Burrows at the helm of the House. The bill was also designated as priority legislation this session by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the third-term Republican who presides over the Senate.
Burrows, R-Lubbock, has pushed back on local governments in the past, and during the last legislative session he targeted local control with a sweeping bill restricting what cities can regulate.
Burrows has been an outspoken critic of organizations representing local governments. He penned an op-ed in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal last year in which he called the Texas Association of School Boards a "gang" and pointed a finger at them for school closures in his district.
"This powerful gang is used to getting its way, and has had way too much influence on Texas education policy for decades," Burrows wrote. "Tragically for Texas families, this gang consistently prioritizes the self-serving interests of their adult members ahead of our school children."
Burrows suggested his constituents would be better off directly lobbying lawmakers.
"I think the people would have a stronger voice in what they really want" if the ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying was passed, Burrows told Lubbock radio host Chad Hasty in October.
"There's so much power and influence with these associations and their lobbyists, that are paid with your tax dollars, that really are used to getting their way down there" in Austin, Burrows said, blaming the school boards association for killing the 2023 school finance bill, House Bill 1, which included a voucher program.
In a statement to the American-Statesman, the association's spokesperson Sylia Wood likened the proposed lobbying restrictions to censorship, noting that the move could hamstring local school districts' influence over the Legislature.
"Efforts to silence the collective voice of school leaders and educators, including the more than 7,000 elected school board trustees, equates to community censorship," Wood said. "Community censorship is bad for local taxpayers and voters because it would limit the ability of education leaders to speak up for what's best for their schools and communities. In addition, efforts to censor school board trustees are part of a larger attack on public education with the goal of undermining local governance.
"All industries, issues, and causes have people at the Capitol to make sure their voices are heard. Public schools should not be treated differently," Wood continued. "We ask that lawmakers respect the right of associations to advocate on behalf of their members and the communities they serve."
Dax Gonzales, the association's government relations director, told the Statesman in an August story that the Legislature can be difficult for individual school districts and parents to deal with.
"The process is not, as it is right now, geared towards individuals having a huge impact on the legislative process," Gonzales said. "It just isn't the process, it's confusing on purpose; it is convoluted, it is designed so that those who know about the process know how to navigate the process."
Besides public education advocates, cities are nervous about what such a ban could mean for them. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said in a January interview with the Statesman that it is "very important" for the city to be able to hire lobbyists because they work to defend voter-approved measures like Project Connect by educating lawmakers on local priorities.
Other Texas cities, like Burrows' hometown of Lubbock, could have an even harder time advocating for themselves if they don't have access to Austin lobbyists. With a six-hour drive between the two cities and just one daily direct flight from Lubbock to Austin, officials in the South Plains hub have said it's difficult for them to move at the speed of the Legislature.
"The really big cities, they have both on-staff lobbyists — they call them 'intergovernmental relations' — and they have third-party lobbyists," Lubbock City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said in a 2023 interview. "For us up here, it is actually less costly to use the third-party lobbyists than it is to try to do that on our own."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas bill would end taxpayer-funded lobbying for schools, cities