One of Texas’s most influential political organizations has launched a campaign to get key legislation passed before a state legislative deadline.
True Texas Project President Fran Rhodes and others have been knocking on doors in the Capitol this week to get SB19 across the finish line.
“The Senate passed SB19 in March, and it was referred to the House State Affairs Committee on 3/25. It’s now May 1st and only a couple weeks left to get this bill through the committee process in the House and then to the floor for a vote,” Rhodes stated to The Dallas Express.
The bill concerns taxpayer-funded lobbying.
“Taxpayer-funded lobbying is undermining the voice of Texans in government and diluting one of their most precious rights—the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. In 2021, local governments in Texas spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money to hire registered lobbyists, often to fight against the very people funding them. This practice is a direct threat to citizens’ constitutional rights and must be stopped,” The Huffines Liberty stated in a post on X dated October 3, 2024.
Other Texas-based organizations have concurred.
“Local governments are lobbying state government for more government. The obvious outcome of this activity is higher taxes, more spending, and the continued California-zation of Texas governments,” the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s James Quintero said. “The 89th Texas Legislature must make it a top priority to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying.”
Representatives from the Texas Municipal League (TML) have spoken out against SB19.
“As filed, S.B. 19 would expressly prohibit a political subdivision from spending public funds to hire a professional advocate. It also would prohibit a political subdivision from joining a nonprofit state association or organization that contracts with a professional advocate. In our view, this will prevent local officials from being able to effectively advocate for our residents on important issues that impact their daily lives,” TML President Allison Heyward said in a February 27 letter to State Affairs Committee Chairman Senator Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola).
Heyward argued that the passage of this legislation could hurt small towns.
“The City of Schertz is one of TML’s 1,175 Texas member cities. TML provides services which individual cities have neither time, money, nor strength to do alone.” She said the City of Schertz depended on TML for everything from employee training to legal assistance on municipal law.
Rhodes pointed out that taxpayer-funded lobbying burdens taxpayers financially and politically.
“TTP (and NE Tarrant Tea Party before that) has always championed a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying. We believe ending this practice (including the non profits like TASB, TML, etc) would be a step forward in protecting citizens from the continuous increases in property taxes, as well as unwelcome policy positions that many taxpayers do not agree with,” Rhodes stated via email to The Dallas Express.
Near the end of her exchange with The Dallas Express, Rhodes explained the obstacles facing these bills: “The bill is being held up in the House State Affairs committee, also known as the place where good bills go to die. Chairman King is refusing to hold a hearing on this (and many other priority bills), and it’s hard to understand why. He and Speaker Burrows signed on to the Texas Conservative Commitment, which lists banning taxpayer-funded lobbying as one of the priorities.”
Rhodes ended her comments to The Dallas Express with a rhetorical question: “Grassroots voters support it, the governor supports it, the lieutenant governor supports it, and supposedly Speaker Burrows and Chairman King support it, so why the holdup?”
A current TTP handout sheet makes a concurrent point and shows some of the greater complexities of the issue. “This session, SB19 passed the Senate, but with an amendment from Senator Nichols that stripped nonprofits out of the equation, which was the primary purpose of the bill in the first place. SB 19 and its identical companion House bills, HB4860 and HB3257 are all three now assigned to the House State Affairs Committee.”
It goes on to state that SB19 must be passed without the Nichols amendment.
TTP’s website describes the organization’s mission: “In the spirit of the original Texians who valiantly defended their families, their lands, and their liberties, True Texas Project exists to educate and motivate citizen engagement in all levels of government.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Chairman King for comment, but he did not respond by the time of publication.