Counties, cities on defense in session
GOP in Texas Senate to target lobbying by local 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 fromNortheast Texas, made clear in its meeting announcement that itwill “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 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 measure.
The Texas Legislature, which
meets every two years, is set to reconvene in January. While leaders have not rolled out a clear set of priorities yet for the session, the revival of the lobbying ban for local governments shows state lawmakers are not letting up.
Even after the anti-lobbying bill failed in 2019, Republican leaders were already making it a top priority going forward. After the session ended, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, a Republican from Brazoria County, was caught on a secret recording talking at length about that bill and bragging about his efforts to make life miserable for mayors and county judges all over the state.
“Let me tell you something: In this office and in the conference room on that end, any mayor, county judge that was dumbass enough to come meet with me, I told them with great clarity: My goal is for this to be the worst session in the history of the Legislature for cities and counties,” said Bonnen, who announced later he would not seek re-election after
the recordings became public.
Though Bonnen is on his way out, state Rep. Dade Phelan — a Beaumont Republican who is expected to be the next House speaker — has also advocated ending taxpayer-funded lobbying and took part in other efforts that frustrated local government leaders. Phelan has specifically called out Houston for spending more than $600,000 on outside lobbyists, and in the secret Bonnen recording, Bonnen talked about Phelan and another committee chairman intentionally calling Austin Mayor
Steve Adler to testify in two different hearings at the same time to make him run back and forth in the Capitol.
State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, on the recording with Bonnen said Phelan asked him, “Hey, howmuch fun do you think it will be to have Mayor Adler run back and forth between trying to cover these two things?”
Phelan has not responded to requests for comment about that incident.
Republicans who support the lobbying ban say local govern
ments are using millions of dollars of taxpayer money each year for lobbying, diverting money that could be used for other community services.
But critics of the proposal say lobbyists help track the hundreds of bills that state lawmakers file that could affect city and county residents. They argue a mayor or county judge doesn’t have time to track all that legislation while doing their jobs.
State lawmakers are looking to curb local government powers in other areas, too. Earlier this year, several said they would revisit emergency power provisions that gave local officials authority to close down businesses and require masks when the pandemic hit. Abbott later issued his own emergency order forcing those local measures to end.
Also, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, has already filed a bill to block local election officials from mass-mailing absentee ballot applications to all voters. That came after then-Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins tried to send applications to all of the county’s registered voters so people could request mail ballots to avoid po
tential exposure to COVID-19.
But Bettencourt said itwas confusing for voters to potentially receive the ballots when Texas doesn’t allow all voters to use absentee balloting. To vote absentee, voters must be out of the county at the time of the election, be sick, or be 65 or older.
Some current and former local officials are already calling on the Legislature to end its yearslong attack on local control.
Last week, former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene wrote an op-ed piece in the Fort Worth StarTelegram calling for more respect for local decision-making.
“The centerpiece of this objective is to leave the decisions of how to shape cities in the hands of their citizens,” Greene said. “In recent sessions of the Legislature, there have been wrong-headed efforts to shift that power to the state. Such proposals are contrary to the foundational principle of self-government. The home rule form of government has helped make Texas cities the fastest growing in the nation.”