City opposes Senate Bill 10
City council members unanimously approved Resolution 690-21 expressing their opposition to Senate Bill 10 and similar legislation under consideration in the 87th Legislative Session.
SB 10, sponsored by Senator Paul Bettencourt relates “to the use by a county or municipality of public money for lobbying activities.” Bettencourt serves a portion of Harris County outside the Sam Houston Tollway which wraps around Harris County from Katy to east of Spring. His bill aims to end purported six figure expenditures on lobbyists from taxpayer funds in urban areas like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, but the bill could have unintended consequences for small cities and rural counties.
Referring to her attempts to communicate with State Representative Ben Leman and Senator Charles Schwertner, council member Pattie Pederson said, “I have reached out numerous times to each of our representatives, and I have been ghosted on every possible occasion. They refuse to return my phone calls, my texts, my emails.”
City Manager Brad Stafford said, “Just for clarification, the bills that we’re discussing are bills that would prohibit the city from joining Texas Municipal League (TML) where we pay just under $2,000 annually for an organization to advocate for the city and keep us informed on legislation. They keep someone at the state capital all the time during the session.”
Mayor Bert Miller added that TML provides training and other benefits to the City.
Council member Bernie Gessner said, “These bills were conceived, it appears, because of a big fight between the Texas legislature and major cities in the state who are spending an inordinate amount of money on lobbying. They come back with this blanket thing which is really going to impinge not on the major cities with a big budget, but on people like us who don’t have the money. We spend $2,000 a year for TML. We get a lot of benefits from them, and this is one of them. They are essentially our voice in Austin. It’s very important to us because without this, we’re at the mercy of time and space and everything else on getting our voice heard in Austin.”
Stafford said, “There are bills that include restricting even city staff from participating in the process which would mean even emails or phone calls to city council members regarding legislation, if it passed.”