Georgetown Is Not The Only Government Lobbying TX Legislature

"In 2017, lobbying disclosure forms also reveal an interesting data point: 11 percent of lobbying dollars spent that year—as much as $41 million—was spent by government to hire outside lobbyists to lobby government.TPPF

Unfortunately, many local jurisdictions, from counties, to cities, to school districts, and even municipal utility districts (MUDs), have outsourced a very basic part of their job as elected officials by hiring professional lobbyists to lobby state government. Even worse, the up-to-$41 million in taxpayer money spent on hired lobbyists to influence the state government in 2017 was often spent on behalf of measures that are contrary to the interests of their own constituents. For instance, funds were spent to lobby against annexation reform,which allows individual Texans the right to decide for themselves if they want to join a neighboring city. Funds were also spent against efforts to limit the high yearly increase of property taxes."

To end the tyrannical practice of tax-funded lobbying, the Texas Legislature must:

1) Ban the ability of local governments to hire outside lobbyists and legislative consultants

2) Prevent political subdivisions from using public funds to hire someone whose main job is to lobby government entities

3) Stop public funds from flowing to public agency associations, a.k.a. unions