Preemption
Bill Sponsors / Authors:
Rep. Ellen Troxclair
R - Blanco
Sen. Mayes Middleton
R - Galveston
Supporting Documents / Links:
Senate Bill 175 – Lobbying Ban
The City of Houston invests in hiring lobbyists for the Legislative Session, just as many large employers and businesses do throughout the State of Texas. The vote on these contracts are stand-alone items with the signed contracts posted on an easily accessible website. The total spent on these contracts is largely unchanged from the past decade, showing no increased cost to the state lobby contract.
In addition to the actual lobby contracts, the City of Houston also puts every piece of written testimony online to help further combat misinformation and provide transparency.
Senate Bill 175 would eliminate the ability for local governments to hire lobbyists. Additionally, the bill would prohibit the use public funds to pay dues or fees to a nonprofit statewide association that primarily represents political subdivisions and hires or contracts with a person required to register as a lobbyist (ie, the Texas Municipal League).
One “non-profit” has decided that any local government participation at the legislative level should be banned. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) continues to spread false information and mislead the public about what local government organization like Houston advocate for at the Legislature.
However, it is much more difficult to find information about the TPPF. Because it is a nonprofit, the Texas Public Policy Foundation is not required to disclose its donors.
As the New York Times reported on December 4th, “As the organization’s profile grew, donations ballooned from $4.7 million in 2010 to $25.6 million in 2021, the most recent year for which records are available.”
Over 25 lobbyists registered with the Texas Ethics Commission as lobbying on behalf of the TPPF. The City of Houston – the largest city in Texas with 22,000 employees, hired 10.
Here is an example of how TPPF spreads their misinformation taken from testimony from Bill Kelly, Director of Government Relations for the City of Houston:
On February 2nd they (TPPF) emailed out a statement condemning local lobbying efforts specifically saying, “Houstonians paid to advocate for . . . government-controlled health care.”
That’s a hell of a way to say we support for more state funding for mental health.
While subjective judgements about advocacy are debatable, what is not is the amount of money spent. From that same testimony, TPPF is deliberately misleading the public on the spending from local governments:
The numbers sited by the dark money group advocating for elimination of local participation uses information from an organization called, “Transparency USA.” This group uses the ranges of dollar figures that the Texas Ethics Commission collects for lobbyists to try and calculate what local governments spend on lobbying.
In Houston’s case, Transparency USA quadruple counted the amount paid to our prime lobby contractor making their final range report 2 to 4 times higher than what Houston actually spends. When alerted of this, the group refused to correct their information – despite being presented with the actual contract and Council approval.
For the record, Houston has a maximum spending limit of $757,000 over a two-year period to pay for state lobby services – which is the same total it has been since 2011.
Houston’s state lobby contract passed on a standalone, 16 to 1 vote on November 9th, 2022.
The other key consideration when discussing lobbying at the legislature is the range of issues that local governments deal with. From animal control to school safety zones, cities have one of the widest ranges of issues that directly effect services of any entities before the Legislature. Without hiring lobbyists, there is no way to cover the broad range of issues that require city input.