Texas Taxpayers Shouldn’t Have to Pay for Lobbyists Who Work to Raise Their Taxes

Local governments should not be allowed to use taxpayer dollars to lobby the state for more taxpayer dollars or increased regulatory power.

Key Points:

• Cities, counties, school districts, and special districts spend as much as $41 million in taxpayer dollars on outside lobbyists to lobby state government during the legislative session.
• Local government often lobbies against the interests of the taxpayers they represent, advocating for higher taxes and larger government.
• Locally elected officials already have the ear of their state representatives, paying millions to professional outside lobbyists is unneeded.
• The Legislature should ban the ability of local government to use taxpayer dollars to hire outside lobbyists and prohibit public funds from going to public agency associations.  

2017 11 PolicyBrief TaxpayerFundedLobbying–CEP DeVore by texaspolicy on Scribd