Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying

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Taxpayer-funded lobbying is the practice of engaging in lobbying activities as a public entity. This is done by counties, cities, school districts, public facilities, and many other entities that receive taxpayer money through public funds.

This is controversial because the agenda being lobbied for are not decided by taxpayers, whose money is used for the practice. This means the outcomes of lobbying are sometimes opposed to the constituents' benefit.

[edit] Disclosure concerns

Disclosure required of registered lobbyists on behalf of public entities is poorly enforced according to some reports (see below). These allegations also stress the difficulty of holding localities and public officials accountable when reporting regulations are relaxed.

[edit] Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Prosperity, involved in investigating taxpayer-funded lobbying (See this report), has reported several flaws with the disclosure system the taxpayer-funded lobbyists are required to follow by the Texas Ethics Commission.[1]

Some of their concerns are:

  • Lobbyists are not required to indicate whether their client receives public funding. "Entities such as schools obviously receive taxpayer funds, but others are not possible to discern without a FOIA request". [1]
  • Many entities are not subject to a FOIA even if they receive public dollars.
  • Many clients are alphabetized incorrectly throughout the TEC document.
  • Lobbyists for the same client will report that client’s name differently, making impossible to locate clients in one location. For example, "The City of Austin" and "Austin City".

For a full list of concerns, see the report here.

[edit] House Interim Report, 2006

Main article: Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying report

The House of Representatives produced a report on ethical matters and taxpayer-funded lobbying in 2006. The report found that there were glaring flaws in the disclosure and tracking of the spending of taxpayer funds. For examples, local governments could be reported as represented by a lobbyist without their knowledge, and cities could be listed twice ("City of Birmingham" and "Birmingham", for example). While not coming out explicitly against such activities, the House Committees recommended open, full, and consistent disclosure of lobbying expenditures to be strictly enforced.

[edit] Public school lobbying

Texas Tech University spent $4.57 million between the period of 1998-first part of 2008.

[edit] Constitutionality and ethics of Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying

Main articles: Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying report, Constitutionality of taxpayer-funded lobbying, Texas lawsuit on taxpayer-funded lobbying

In 2006, the Texas legislature investigated the practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying and concluded that it is a legitimate practice. However, the committees involved saw that there are still ethical and constitutional problems to be addressed.

[edit] City taxpayer-funded lobbying

The following is a list of cities and spending of public dollars in the past 10 years:[2]

In 2005, 541 local government entities spent $52.6 million on 1,618 lobbyists in Austin.[2]

[edit] Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations

The following is a list of Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying associations by type:

[edit] City and Municipal

[edit] County

[edit] School

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Americans for Prosperity, "Recommendations for Lobby Disclosure and Transparency of Taxpayer Funded Lobbying", December 6, 2006
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 AFP Texas Blog, "Focus on Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying Shifts to National Level"


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Texas taxpayer-funded lobbying associations
v • d • e
Lists of taxpayer-funded lobbying associations
By type

National organizations
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