Good morning, 

Today’s Texas Minute looks at the most notorious gang within the taxpayer-funded lobby – a group of people who see you as their personal ATM.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Monday, July 22, 2019
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• Actually, they think of you as a “money tree” from whom they can harvest cash. In fact, a presentation last week at a conference of the Texas Municipal League (or TIML) was titled “Shaking The Money Tree.”
     

• That presentation was made by TML’s legislative counsel, Bill Longley.
     

• TML is funded almost entirely with your money. Cities join TML with your money, and city officials – elected and unelected alike – attend TML conferences with your money.
     

• Only one city councilman present was outraged enough to speak out.
      

• “While taxpayers across the state are being forced out of their homes by rising property taxes, Texas Municipal League, the leading advocate for taxpayer-funded lobbying and opponent of property tax reform, sees them as little more than a never-ending source of revenue to be shaken down even further.” – Corsicana City Councilman Chris Woolsey
     

• During the most recent legislative session, TML used their resources – most of which are taken in the form of city dues from Texas taxpayers without their knowledge or consent – to lobby against property tax reform.
      

• Earlier this year, lawmakers were looking to restrict involuntary annexation. That’s when cities decide to simply bring onto their tax rolls properties outside the city council. It’s literally taxation without representation. Only one person spoke against the proposal during the Texas House hearing: TML’s deputy executive director and general counsel, Scott Houston.
      

• If your city is a member of the Texas Municipal League – and almost every city is – then you are involuntarily funding your own political opposition.
      

• This is why the failure of the Texas House to pass an outright ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying was such a betrayal of taxpayers. The ban passed the Texas Senate, but it was gutted and killed in the House. Brandon Waltens last week wrote an “autopsy report” on the ignoble death the ban.
      

• Senate Bill 29 by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) would have banned the practice across the board, prohibiting counties, cities, school districts, and other local entities from spending taxpayer dollars for the purpose of lobbying the state legislature. 
      

• SB29 passed out of the Senate on April 17, but was stalled in the House – giving time for State Rep. Drew Springer (R–Muenster) to water it down. The House leadership, under Speaker Dennis Bonnen, then moved to further weaken the measure by exempting school district bureaucracies from the lobbying ban altogether.
      

• The House ended up voting to kill SB29 altogether, with 85 members opposing the version they weakened to the point of uselessness.
      

• Texas taxpayers shouldn’t be compelled to fund their own opposition. If Republicans maintain control of the Texas House, they should make passage of a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying at the top of their to-do list.
   

• Please join me in wishing a (belated) happy Saturday birthday to the Vice President of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Cary Cheshire.