View of the Texas capital from the outside of the iron fence
With two weeks to go to the two -year meeting of the Texas Legislative Corps, Austin legislators still have many businesses tend to tend. Greg Abbott (R) and many legislators, however, have already achieved their top priority for the meeting by putting legislation, which Abbott Governor Signed last weekCreating an Educational Savings Program (ESA) that will provide about 100,000 children with school selection next year.
The Texas Senate has passed the legislation on school selection many times over the last six years, only to see it dying at home. However, the school selection is not the only conservative reform of Marquee that could eventually reach the office of Governor Abbott this year after being confused in Texas for the best part of Decad. This depends, however, whether the speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) and his colleagues can get Senate bill 19 at the Abbott Governor’s office before the session was stopped on June 2.
The Senate 19 bill, which the Senate of Texas voted in March and is now awaiting the examination of the State Affairs Committee, will prevent local governments from using taxpayers to hire interest groups. According to research From the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank based in Austin, local governments across the state spent $ 98.6 million on interest groups in 2023, from $ 75 million in 2021.
“Up to $ 100 million per year Texans’ tax dollars are used to hire Austin interest groups who then press on taxpayers and parents,” says Senator Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), author of SB 19.
In addition to the significant amount of local tax dollars going to representatives of interest, SB 19 supporters point out that taxpayers’ representatives often support the interests of taxpayers. Counselors for local governments, for example, were some of the most vocal opponents of tax relief and legislation that would require more conservative budget locally.
Senator Middleton notes that the contrast with tax relief and the retention of government expenditure is not the only ways in which taxpayers ‘dollars are used to put pressure on taxpayers’ interests. Middleton points out how local governments also pay for interest groups to oppose schools, defeat proposals to enhance border security and stop the legislation that seeks to remove the alarm’s ideology from the schools.
In addition to highlighting the way local governments hire interest groups to support the interests of taxpayers, supporters SB 19 also question their opposition to name a single case in which local governments have hired a business in favor of a taxation. This writer contacted the Texas Municipal League and the Texas County Union, the top SB 19 opponents, asking if they could point out when local government teams supported a tax cut. They have not yet provided such an example, but this article will be informed if that changes.
The poll shows that the SB 19 will prove to be a politically popular policy change. A poll published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation in February found that more than 80% support the ban on taxation funded by taxpayers.
“The overwhelming majority of Texans oppose the use of tax dollars to finance interest groups”, TPPF famous in his release on the findings of the February poll. “More than four of the five registered voters are opposed to just 7% saying they are approved.”
“We do not need an Austin intermediate lobby between state and local elected officials,” adds Senator Middleton. “We are elected to represent our voters directly.”
Although it does not match the amounts spent in Texas, local tax dollars are spent on interest groups in many other states, both blue and red. Legislators in Tennessee and Florida also expressed their interest in sealing the pressure funded by taxpayers. If Texas becomes the first state to do so, it will probably not be long before legislation such as SB 19 in other state capitals.
