Texas Senate is jump-starting its 2021 offensive against city and county governments

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Jeremy Wallace Nov. 20, 2020

Texas Senate is jump-starting its 2021 offensive against city and county governments

It didn’t take long for Republicans in the Texas Senate to send a clear message to local governments that they should prepare for another high-stakes battle in Austin.

Just weeks after the Nov. 3 election, the Texas Senate’s State Affairs committee is already setting up its first meeting for Dec. 7 to discuss lobbying reforms that would bar cities and counties from using taxpayer funds to hire lobbyists. While there is no specific bill set to be discussed, the committee chaired by Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from northeast Texas, made clear in its meeting announcement that it will “make recommendations to protect taxpayers from paying for lobbyists who may not represent the taxpayers’ interests.”

It is hardly a surprise that cities and counties will immediately be put on the defense. The last two sessions have been aggressively anti-local government with Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — both Republicans — pushing to hem in cities and counties on issues ranging from tree ordinances and annexation rules to property taxes, police budgets and how much they can spend on lobbyists.

In May 2019, a bill that would have prohibited cities and counties from hiring lobbyists died in the final days of the Legislative Session after the House voted down the legislation.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Texas-Senate-is-jump-starting-its-2021-offensive-15743727.php

[Bigun]

Just weeks after the Nov. 3 election, the Texas Senate’s State Affairs committee is already setting up its first meeting for Dec. 7 to discuss lobbying reforms that would bar cities and counties from using taxpayer funds to hire lobbyists.

I would like for someone to logically explain to me just why taxpayers should allow the people they elect to "serve" them
in city and county governments to use our tax money to lobby against taxpayer interests.  I'll wait!

[Elderberry]

Lobby Restrictions - Senate Bill 29

https://www.houstontx.gov/legislative-report-2019/legislative-battles/sb-29-lobby-restrictions.html

Senate Bill 29 would have prohibited political subdivisions, including cities, counties, school districts, and transportation authorities from hiring contract lobbyists to influence legislation specifically related to taxation, bond elections, tax-supported debt, and ethics.

The City of Houston supports transparency measures for lobbying contracts. In fact, Houston testified in support of Rep. Matt Shaheen's House Bill 433. However, Sen. Bob Hall & Rep. Mayes Middleton's SB 29 was an effort to ban local officials from hiring lobbyists.

The premise of the bill is that local government lobbyists advocate against the interests of taxpayers. This website is an effort to show exactly what the City of Houston's Lobby Team worked on during the 86^th^ Session and dispel the notion that the City of Houston is against the taxpayer interests. Residents and taxpayers ultimately have the ability to set the legislative agenda.

Local government lobbyists often protect the interests of residents against private lobbyists. This bill would remove local control and have a chilling effect on local engagement at the Legislature. If local governments could not lobby the Legislature, future legislation that constituted an unfunded mandate could further cost taxpayer money.

Rep. Middleton amended his bill to make it limited to cities and counties ONLY on tax-related issues. Under Middleton's perfecting amendment, lobbying was defined as making an expenditure to influence a member of the legislative body to influence legislation. Prohibited lobbying would be limited to four areas: taxation, bonds, tax-supported debt and ethics. Dues could still go to chambers of commerce that might be lobbying on behalf of cities and counties.

Further amendments continued to dilute Middleton's bill. Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, attached an amendment to exclude rural counties and cities because of their limited budgets.

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, added more specificity to the tax language and an additional area of study for the potential impact of the regulations on various areas of the government code.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, attached language for jurisdictions to post information about hired lobbyists on their websites. For the record, the City of Houston already complies with this aspect and makes the information easily searchable on our standalone website.

The final vote on the bill was 58-85-2 against the bill on the House floor, with a bipartisan mix on both sides of the vote.