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One of the biggest legislative priorities for the Republican grassroots movement has been a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying. It's something that has been pushed for years, and after multiple failures, it's finally made it onto the special session agenda.
It's one of the 18 items on Governor Abbott's special session agenda, and a number of lawmakers have already signed a pledge to get it done. State Senator Mayes Middleton, who is also running for attorney general, has even called out the practice on X, where he said, "Now it’s time to stop the Texas version of USAID—taxpayer-funded lobbying."
An end to taxpayer-funded lobbying would mean that school districts and other local government authorities would no longer be able to use revenue from taxes, specifically property taxes, to pay lobbying firms to advocate for legislation in Austin.
Andrew McVeigh with Texans for Fiscal Responsibility called that practice corrupt, saying, "There's an incentive to hire these lobbyists to go and oppose things like property tax relief, and they spend quite a large amount."
So, after multiple attempts by conservative members of the legislature to shut down these lobbying practices, could this be the year it gets done? McVeigh thinks there's a good shot. He said, "We're very hopeful that it gets done this special session. Just the fact that Governor Abbott actually put it on the special session call—he didn't shy away from it."
He says he expects it to work its way through the Senate, and then the question will become whether or not it stalls and dies in the Texas House yet again.