Good morning, 

The Capitol culture in Austin isn’t a swamp, it’s a sewer. And it is made worse by government entities using the taxpayers’ money to lobby against the taxpayers’ interests. 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Monday, July 29, 2019
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• As our friends at the Texas Public Policy Foundation put it a while back, "Government lobbying on its own behalf – not on behalf of its taxpayers – is on the rise." Taxpayers must stand against that trend.
     

• The existence of tax-funded lobbying by government entities means taxpayers are forced to fund their legislative opposition.

      
• Legislation to end this abhorrent practice was filed in both the Texas Senate and House. The Senate passed it, but a coalition of Democrats and 25 House Republicans killed it. Before killing it altogether, a similar House coalition worked to water down the bill, making the measure a shadow of its original form.
   
• The 25 House Republicans who ultimately voted with nearly every Democrat to kill the ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying include: State Reps. Steve Allison, Doc Anderson, Trent Ashby, Ernest Bailes, Keith Bell, Angie Button, Travis Clardy, Drew Darby, Dan Flynn, Todd Hunter, Kyle Kacal, Ken King, Kuempel, Stan Lambert, Lyle Larson, Rick Miller, Chris Paddie, Tan Parker, Four Price, John Raney, John Smithee, Phil Stephenson, Lynn Stucky, Gary VanDeaver, and John Zerwas.
       
• According to TransparencyTexas.org, 32 percent of Texas’ lobbyists have clients that are “tax-funded or primarily tax-funded.”
     
• “More than $77 million of taxpayer money was potentially spent on lobbyists to influence Texas politicians in the 2017 Legislative Session.” – TransparencyTexas.org
        
• Lobbyists hired with the taxpayers’ money worked against common sense legislative agendas like reforming the property tax system and reforming annexation laws.
      
• Another form of tax-funded lobbying is done through public agency associations like the Texas Municipal League, Texas Association of Counties, and many sub-affiliates. Unaccountable to voters, these groups shield the elected officials in their membership from the consequences of bad policy. One way they accomplish this is by uniformly pushing down recommendations and “policy changes” made to look like state rules. 
     
• Grassroots conservatives consider the practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying anathema to limited government principles. Plank #217 of the Texas GOP platform reads: “We urge that the Texas Legislature enact legislation that prohibits tax-funded contract lobbying.”
      
• The Lone Star Agenda – recently adopted by grassroots leaders from around the state – finds tax-funded lobbying a threat to “the Texas institutions that are critical to our historical identity as the Lone Star State.” 

• If you think it's time to ban the use of tax dollars to lobby against hardworking taxpayers, sign and share this petition with your friends!