Former House Speaker Gib Lewis | File photo
Former House Speaker Gib Lewis | File photo
Former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis will be paid nearly $15,000 to work as a lobbyist for one of the fastest-growing cities in the state.
Details of the $14,872 to be paid to Lewis are contained in the 2021 budget for the City of Mansfield in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. The information was released more widely following an open records request by state Rep. Mayes Middleton (R–Wallisville), who has filed a bill in the House that would bar cities, counties and school districts from paying lobbyists working in Austin.
A Democrat, Lewis, now 84, left the House and his position as speaker in 1992 after pleading guilty to illegally accepting and not disclosing a gift from a San Antonio law firm.
Under Middleton's bill, and a similar one filed in the Senate ahead of the new legislative session, political subdivisions, including cities, counties and school boards, cannot use public funds to hire an individual required to register as a lobbyist.
Further, the bill also bars the paying of dues to an association, including the Texas Municipal League, that hires lobbyists. Mansfield will pay the league $6,445, according to the budget.
In a letter to Texas state senators, whose signatories were led by the current TML president, Coppell City Mayor Karen Hunter, city mayors said the bill deprives "the legislature of valuable information from local governments on the most pressing issues of our time."
The bar on dues could have a crippling effect on the work of the TML and other associations, according to the organization.
"The concept of restricting community advocacy represents a limited view of public discourse and policymaking, not to mention a potentially dangerous understanding of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all citizens," the letter said.
“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 teacher’s retirement pensions,” Middleton told the East Houston News. “Taxpayers are forced to pay for lobbyists that lobby against their best interests. Taxpayer-funded lobbying is a modern practice and a bad one.”
Up to $41 million per year is spent by local government on Austin lobbyists, according to a 2017 report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative organization campaigning for a ban.
Middleton said 91% of Texas voters oppose political entities paying lobbyists, citing a December 2019 poll by WPA Intelligence, a self-styled conservative polling firm
Mansfield is one of the fastest-growing cities in Texas, with its population more than doubling to more than 70,000 in the last 20 years.
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