City manager: Lucas doesn’t directly lobby state, federal government

The Collin County city of Lucas doesn’t invest in lobbying, a city staffer said, although it does pay dues to organizations that do lobby state and federal officials.

City manager Joni Clarke said Lucas does not get directly involved in lobbying efforts with the state and federal governments.

“The city council has not budgeted any funds for hiring the services of a lobbyist in its 20/21 budget,” she said. “The city of Lucas is not currently engaged in any specific lobbying effort.”

However, it does spend money with organizations that actively lobby in Austin and Washington, D.C., every year.

“The city of Lucas pays dues to several organizations/associations, one of which is the Texas Municipal League and the amount budgeted for fiscal year 2020-21 is $2,000,” Clarke said.

She declined to say if any percentage of those dues go to lobbying.

The Texas Municipal League’s legislative services department “is responsible for coordinating the League's legislative policy program at both the state and national levels,” according to the TML website.

The legislative department has three full-time lobbyists who maintain “a working relationship” with members of Congress, the governor, lieutenant governor, members of the Texas Legislature, including the speaker of the Texas House, and Texas state agency directors.

“The city of Lucas is not currently engaged in any specific lobbying effort,” Clarke said. “The city of Lucas is not currently engaged in any specific activity. The city council is the governing body that would decide on any specific legislative effort would be necessary and beneficial to the citizens of Lucas.”

Rep. Mayes Middleton, a second-term Republican from Wallisville, has been on a mission to reveal how much money cities, towns, counties and school districts spend on taxpayer-funded lobbying. He said the total is $41 million annually and, in many cases, those lobbyists are pushing bills opposed by the people who pay their salaries.

“Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have opposed property tax relief, election integrity, disclosures of what bonds truly cost taxpayers, the constitutional ban on a state income tax, and they even opposed the bill to fund and protect our teachers' retirement pensions,” Middleton told East Houston News in December.

Middleton introduced a bill to end such influence work if funded by taxpayers during his first term in office. It failed, but he is trying again this session.

He points out that the Texas Legislature passed a law that went into effect in September 2019 requiring public disclosure of money spent on lobbying. Middleton wrote a letter to about 3,000 cities, towns, counties and school districts asking for data on lobbying.

Only about half have complied.

Middleton filed on  House Bill (HB) 749 on Dec. 7, which would end taxpayer-funded lobbying.

It states: “A political subdivision may not spend public funds to hire an individual required to register as a lobbyist under Chapter 305 for the purpose of lobbying a member of the legislature or pay a nonprofit state association or organization that [either] primarily represents political subdivisions and ) hires or contracts with an individual required to register as a lobbyist under Chapter 305.”

Middleton said his efforts have widespread public support. A May 2019 survey conducted for the Texas Public Policy Foundation showed 88% of Lone Star State residents opposed taxpayer-funded lobbying, with 78% saying they strongly opposed it. Only 5% supported the practice. 

Lucas has grown steadily in the past two decades, with its population topping 8,000 by 2020, nearly three times what it was in 2000.