Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying | Jose Melendez

In this episode of The Ashley B. Cash Show, Ashley sits down with Jose Melendez, director of the Taxpayer Protection Project and Government Reform & Oversight Coalition at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, for a timely conversation about where taxpayer dollars are really going—and why every Texan should be paying attention.

Together, they unpack the growing concerns surrounding property taxes, school bonds, taxpayer-funded lobbying, local government spending, and government accountability. Jose explains how low-turnout elections can lead to billions of dollars in new debt, why transparency in public spending matters, and what reforms could be on the horizon for Texas.

Ashley and Jose also discuss the importance of civic engagement, empowering citizens to understand policy, attend local meetings, ask questions, and hold elected officials accountable. Whether you're a homeowner, parent, taxpayer, or simply someone who wants to better understand how government decisions affect your daily life, this episode offers valuable insights and practical ways to get involved.

Topics Covered:

• Property taxes and school bond elections
• Taxpayer-funded lobbying
• Government transparency and accountability
• Local spending and fiscal responsibility
• Texas DOGE and proposed tax reforms
• How everyday citizens can make a difference

If you're passionate about protecting taxpayers, improving government accountability, and creating stronger communities, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.

Visit www.AshleyBCashOfficial.com for more content and features. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Ashley B. Cash Show. I'm Ashley, and I'm super excited for today's guest. Jose Melendez leads both Taxpayer Protection Project and the Government Reform and Oversight Coalition campaigns at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Born and raised in Houston, Jose got his start serving on local and state campaigns and grassroots efforts. And he brings years of experience in legislative campaigns, grassroots advocacy, and coalition building that has helped him build genuine relationships across our state and nation. Jose has served as regional director in multiple primary states and later as delegate operations manager for Senator Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. He's a graduate of the University of Houston, a proud cougar, with a degree in business. And along with all of that experience, he brings an unmatched work ethic and a sharp attention to detail to everything he touches. And outside of his work, Jose is an avid runner. He loves a good hiking trip. And he is a diehard fan of the U.S. men's national soccer team. Sorry about that. That was tragic this week. But please welcome Jose Melendez to the show. Jose, welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Well, actually, thank you for having me. Uh, you know, that last bit of my bio uh rings true today because, you know, every four years we get the World Cup, and it just so happens that it this World Cup is here in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

It's been so fun to watch.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

It's been fun to watch as a diehard fan, uh, the US team, but more so just the amount of folks that have come from all over the world that have crisscrossed Texas. Yes. I went to a game uh the first Sunday of the World Cup up in Dallas between the Netherlands and Japan. And on my trek there, as I was going up there, I stopped at Bucky's. And you see so many Europeans at Bucky's, and they're just walking around amazed. Amazed. What they're seeing, things that you don't see back in Europe. And that for many of them, it's the first time they're seeing this part of the United States.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Because when they come here, they usually go to the hot spots, right? Miami, LA, New York, Vegas, but not uh, what was it? Um just between uh Temple, Texas. Temple, Texas, between Austin and Dallas.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, yeah. They never would have been there and seen our wide rolling open spaces. You know, um, I love, I've been paying more attention. I I played soccer in high school um and um even co-ed soccer, which whoof. Um, but and so I love soccer, but I've not been I haven't been watching much recently in recent years, but I've really enjoyed watching all the tournaments because they're here in the United States and because, you know, for it seems like for the first time it's really being broadcast more in the United States because it's here, right? And so I think it's gonna end up bringing a lot of people to the sport, and I'm super excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Bringing people to the sport and maybe a cultural shift in Europe.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Maybe if they'll uh maybe we'll see a buckies in Europe, say.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Well, what I've loved is on social media watching people from Europe be like, I didn't know the United States was so great. I'd been told it was horrible. I'd been told the people weren't nice, I'd been told all these things, and that's so not true. And I've been loving seeing that because, you know, I think sometimes the United States of America gets a bad rap um because of propaganda or political unrest, whatever. And so to have people actually coming here seeing what we love so much about the United States, right? The opportunity and the diversity and the kind, nice people. Like I'm loving that that's getting out all across the world.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

So they're seeing real America for a first hour. You have these British fans who were at the stockyards in Fort Worth at a rodeo singing along like if they were at a soccer game. You had these Japanese fans in Dallas getting barbecue, or an Italian fan who's getting uh it was at a restaurant and was just amazed by the number of times that his water is refilled. Because that kind of stuff you pay for in Europe. Yes. Just these little things that we take for granted that are just mind-blowing for them.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

I know. But I'm I'm just glad that real people are getting to come here and meet our real people.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

And then I hope too that we get soccer out to more people in the United States because it is a really fun, great sport, and it's such a great sport for kids and builds that team camaraderie. And there's so much, like one of my hiring requirements is like sometimes you don't even make it through my process if you haven't grown up on a ranch or farm, been in FFA, or been an athlete. Because they all had to learn time management and work ethic, and that's really hard to teach. So if they've already got it from that, then that's like a natural, like, okay, let's move you one step forward in the interview process.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

More often than not, people who play soccer also are also runners, long distance runners.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Oh, yeah, you have to.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

So that's what I do now. I'm long distance runner. And it's one of those things where I put that on my resume. Um, because that tells you a lot about a person, discipline, uh, their habits, determination.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

That's right. Yeah, grit, tenacity, all those things are critically important. Well, let's just segue from that, right? To, and this is gonna be a word segue for you, but I've been talking recently about how we need to bring um emotional intelligence back into schools. And I think that that is part of it, right? Because that grit and tenacity, that perseverance, that ability to overcome, that's stuff that we need to be teaching kids because life is not always fair. And I tell my kids every day, life is not fair, but you have to figure out how to keep moving forward anyway. And I'm seeing that in a lot of young kids. And I think that that's something that I just wanted to bring that in really fast because I think it's important that we we start teaching kids emotional intelligence in schools, but that's a whole different topic than we were prepared to talk about today. I I neglected to mention in your bio when I introduced you that you also have a podcast. And yes, and it's called Taxpayer Empowerment.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

So it started off as a podcast that we're going to utilize to bring in local officials to bring attention to issues that are uh being discussed at the Capitol, right? So a lot of what uh local governments do is, you know, their taxing units, uh, they s they're the the ones that are spending money on a lot of their core services. And so when the legislature is passing reforms to tackle those issues at the local level, who better to be the voice for those issues than our local officials? So that's how that started. But then as the podcast came traction, we went from local officials to members of the legislature. Next week I have a member of Congress at members of Congress who are now seeking to come on the podcast. So this thing is growing to a point where I didn't realize we were gonna be going into. I'm I'm known as the local government guy at TVPF, handle state issues. Now I'm being thrust into the federal government side of things.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Uh, and it's interesting, it's it's fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Well, you know, here where I live in Lubbock, Texas, our congressman for a long time has been Congressman Jody Arrington. And he's been his focus has been on budget, right? He was the budget chairman this last session, and everyone is very concerned about money, right? We're overspending everywhere. Federal government, state government, local governments, at least the people feel that way. And I and I think there's a lot of truth, right? Where can we find? I mean, look at both the federal government. We created a doge. Trump created a doge. The governor, lieutenant governor, and the speaker created the Texas Doge this last session. I think that it's really important that we be paying attention to that because taxpayers don't want to pay any more money, right? We feel like we're paying our fair share, but we'd like to see the results of it be good results. And I don't think that those two things always are matching.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

So there's a lot to unravel there.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yes, there is.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Um so every session, and I'll give kudos to the legislature because they do a good job at this. Uh, these sp these past tax relief, right? So property tax relief. Uh, as far as I've been involved in the legislature, we've done so for the last several sessions. Um, in fact, back in 2023, we had the biggest surplus ever in state history, uh, sitting at around $32 billion. And the governor of that session in 2023 said, we're going to spend about half of that surplus in the form of tax relief to send it back to taxpayers.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

And so we did that. We passed an $18 billion tax cut that went back uh to our local governments because those are your taxing units. The state doesn't set a property tax, it's your school districts, your cities, and your counties. And so when that money came back, it seemingly before the ink was even dry on the tax relief bill, your local governments get greedy. They're like, Well, we have this money coming in from the state. They jack up your taxes, they put the school bonds on the ballot, and so on. And so there's a problem there. Back to the spending, you mentioned the spending. The state has a constitutional spending limit. So there's only so much that the city can spend because it's inscribed in the constitution. Your cities, your counties don't have set limitations for the most part. Most cities and counties don't have any limits, and so they spend like drunken sailors. They see the state relief that's coming down and they see it as see that as an opportunity to pass uh, you know, wild things that go beyond core services. One of the ideas that we're proposing, and you mentioned the Texas Doge Office. Uh, kudos to the big three, the Governor Lieutenant Gavin, the speaker, for getting that done last session. But what one of the things I love to see, because right now the focus of that office is just state agencies. We'd love to see what Florida is doing with their Doge office, where they're going into our local government and looking at their books. Where are we? What are we doing with this money that auditing our cities and counties? Would love to see that done here in Texas at the local level.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yes. I I wholeheartedly agree. Last year here locally, there was an effort to not raise property taxes at the county level. And that was great, but then they didn't commensurately make all the budget cuts that they needed to make, right? And so then it started, or at least I was told at the time, and I think maybe they corrected, um, that they started pulling into our savings account, which is an important thing for all cities and counties to have because you need it to get financing and you need it to get your bond rating, right? You must have a certain amount of money in reserve. And then simultaneously, you know, here our roads aren't quite what we want. Although we've we've passed a couple of bonds recently to get our roads improved. They're still not where they need to be, but they're some we've built some new ones and there's some better. And, you know, they got rid of all the pools around town, which has hurt a lot of families. They don't have, you know, those places for their kids to go in the summer. And so we see them not doing things that need to be done. We see them getting rid of things that families liked, you know, and then simultaneously a lot of times your property tax is going up. And so it's hard for the average person to understand what's happening, right? If my property, if I'm paying more in taxes, but I'm getting fewer services that I need or the roads aren't being maintained the way that I want, where's the give and take? Right. And for me, I think that a large part of it in like so now straddling topics, but comes with the vendorism, right? That we're overpaying for some of the services that we're paying to vendors in the state, whether it's at the local level, the county level, the city level, or the state level. And I know that there's a whole lot of laws around preferred vendors and preferred uh ways of doing bidding and everything that I think is problematic. Instead of it being open in a free market system where everybody bids and it becomes very competitive bidding in this seems to me that in the world of um preferred vendors, they because it's a limited group, I think they collude and they inflate prices. So that was a lot to unpack too. Sorry, y'all. I'm all over the place today.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

There is uh a lot of issues here at hand. Let me start here. So I mentioned tax relief, right? Legislature has done a great job.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

But because our local governments are seemingly eating up that relief and taxpayers aren't seeing that in their property tax bills. Uh, next session is going to be a tax reform session. Uh the governor, Lieutenant Governor, the speaker have all said this is a number one issue heading into that session. Now, if there's a lot under that umbrella, right? Yes. Uh, I'm gonna zero in on bonds. So specifically school bonds, because that's I think that's where a lot of the malpractice happens. And I'm gonna tie it to another issue as well. But you mentioned the vendors. So we just had a May bond election. And I think somewhere between 70 or 80% of the bonds on the ballot passed. Yeah. It's almost like if you stick it on the ballot, it's gonna pass.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Well, and with school, I mean it's just for clarification for the viewers, I believe we currently, before this May election, had something like $263 billion in outstanding debt in school bonds.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

So before the bond election is past May, we reported that there was over 236 billion.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

I may have gotten my number.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

But you're you're probably not far off because now that we have this, where this bond election just passed, uh, that number's probably gone up since we were put out the report. So you're probably closer to that number now. In addition to that, if you look at the totality of local government debt in the state of Texas, we're sitting at $552 billion. I mean, that's bigger than most state budgets around the country. So the vicious cycle here at hand is uh you look at our bond election process. Number one, you're having it in May. It's one thing to have it in May of an even year, but if you have a bond election on May of an odd year, one example that I always use, we had a high turnout midterm election back in 2018. It was Ted Cruiser's beta of work. We've never seen turnout numbers like that before. It was like somewhere above 60%. The following election, May of 2019, uh Cypher ISD, which is the third biggest ISD in the state, had a $2 billion bond package on the ballot. They had less than 5% of registered voters show up to vote for that election. And that passed.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Now, once got very what you're saying is because they're putting in an off-cycle elections. Cycle. So in the spring, May, and in odd years, so it's not with when like there's a senatorial race or a presidential race, um, that fewer voters are actually saddling all of the taxpayers with high, high dollars in bond.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

That less than 5% of registered voters is deciding how much your tax rate is going to go up for the totality of the community, right? Uh the other thing at hand here is in that cipher ISD, it's a very it's a high population area within Houston. You go to a smaller ISD where population is lower. I mean, all one has to do is turn out the teachers uh to vote. And a lot of times that's what happens.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Even though we have electioneering laws against that, a lot of folks tow the line to get those teachers out. And that's a lot of these bonds pass. The other thing at hand here is a lot of these bonds go towards pet projects. So your Tosh Mahal high school stadiums, uh, nadatoriums that one's gonna think, well, do we really need that much natatorium? Do we really need that much stadium? So what's going on here, and I'll use one example from this past election, May of 26, Royal ISD. It's a school district that's about an hour west, northwest of Houston, just past Katie and Brookshire. And they had a $72 million high school stadium package on the ballot. I think it passed with under 3% of registered voters showing up. The crazy part is that six months prior to that, so think November of 25, they had a bond on the ballot for $9 million, so substantially less than $72 for simply doing renovations on that stadium. What happened six months later that they came back and they said, we're just gonna build a brand new stadium for $72 million? Well, you mentioned the vendors. Uh, a lot of the campaigning for that bond a pass this past May was just all positive messaging. It's for the kids. We need to get this across the finish line because it's for our kids' future. And surely no one's gonna be against the kids. Right. Um, and that's the only campaign, that's the only messaging you saw out there. In fact, I looked uh for any other sort of messaging for that bond, and there's nothing that I could find. What ends up happening is a lot of the architects, the engineers who eventually will be building that stadium, uh, they go to these school districts and sell them. It's like, well, you know, the school district next door got a new stadium. No reason you shouldn't have one too. And so they buy into that and they they lay out a game plan. This isn't what we're gonna do for you. We're gonna start this pack, we're gonna message uh the bond, and we're gonna get this across the finish line. Now, the expectation there is when that bond passes, is that they're gonna get that kickback. And so they have a competitive bidding process, but really the only application that's considered is by the architect or the engineering firm that provided for passage of that bond.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Right. And it it's a meantime, that particular architect or whoever has been giving, you know, $10,000 to the um parents group or to the baseball team or to the football team and building goodwill with the parents and the kids and and the school board, right? For very small dollars to get him very big dollars.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

And it all comes across as well-meaning, right? Because what they're paying for it might be like a pizza night in the community. And so it's nice and innocent, and people come out, but that's how they start to reel the community in. Uh, and it's lucrative business, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

And they and they sit there and they say, it's for the kids, it's for the kids, it's for the kids. And so then people want to vote for it for the kids. And I frankly would rather than be voting for a new curriculum to help the kids read better.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

That's right. And it's a it's pennies to the dollars that they're they make from those contracts, right? They they start these packs for passage of these bonds, and they're maybe paying $10 and they get uh a thousand dollars back from that investment when they get they get those contracts. The other issue here at hand, because I mentioned that tax reform is going to be the number one issue heading to next session, we're gonna try to address that, right? One way we address that is by moving those elections to November.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Even if it's November of an odd year, preferably one November of even years, because November is typically seen as when elections happen for most people. They that uh resonates with them.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Well, and there's so much more advertising around the candidates um for those bigger elections. And so it draws more voters to the voting booth, and then they can then vote on the bond at the same time. And that's where we need to get those votes to be there during those prime voting times.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And because turnout is also higher, uh, these vendors who are starting these political action committees can't simply just turn out the teachers. They need more than that, right? It's a it's a bigger pool that they're uh pulling from. The other solution we're seeing, and this is actually part of the governor's tax plan, uh, Governor Amber put out a five-point plan. And one of those calls for a supermajority approval of bonds and tax increase elections. So looking at two-thirds in order for passage of a bond, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of times, if you simply just put this bond on the ballot, it passes just about 80% of the time. Now, there's a lot of reforms we're gonna tackle next session. But if you looked at past sessions, we've tackled these reforms before, except the environment just wasn't there. We're heading into an environment where it that's exactly what we're gonna try to do next session. The opposition to this, uh to these reforms in in past sessions has been uh contract lobbyists hired by our cities. It's a practice that we call taxpayer-funded lobbying.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

The the simplest way that I put it is government lobbying government for more government.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Well, and the taxpayer's footing the bill for it. Right. Because our taxpayer dollars go to, and I'm gonna use the schools as a prime example here, taxpayer-funded lobbying with the schools. We're taking myself and other people are taking TPPF, taking good bills to Austin to reform schools for the kids for the kids, right? To make their reading better, to get them better math skills, like personal financial literacy, all those things, right? And um lobby groups come against us. And then you find out it's the lobby fund that's paid by TASB, which is the Texas Association of School Boards, and they're fighting our good bills to do things for the kids because they don't want change, or it's it's not their curriculum that their TASB also owns, right? And so, but they're being paid by the school board to give them advice. So that's our taxpayer dollars that they're getting paid with. And then some of that money then turns around and lobbies against the bills that we're trying to pass to help the kids. And so I, you know, I know last um session, uh, Mays Middleton had a bill to stop taxpayer funded lobbying and it got through committee. And who'd they take out? They took out TASB. And so obviously we didn't want that bill to pass with that because they're the biggest perpetrators, as far as I'm concerned, of the taxpayer-funded lobbying. And so I'm I'm super excited that TPBFs is helping bring a bill this year to stop taxpayer funded lobbying.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Yeah, you mentioned Maze Middleton. He's gonna be sorely messed on this issue. Yes. He's been the champion for this since he arrived at the Texas House before you even got to the Texas House. For years. And, you know, he famously always said, you know, the first bill I filed on the first day of bill filing, and bill filing opens in the middle of November, is the ban on taxpayer funded lobbying. And two buckets that are important on that bill are the contract lobbyist aspect, but also the association aspect, right? You mentioned TASB. Uh an Perpetrators, TML, Texas Municipal League, or TAC, the Texas Association Counties, those are kind of your big three. Now there's more associations, so so so use our tax dollars, you know, they're they're funded with our tax dollars because their membership dues come from cities, school districts, counties. You know, the funny bit is that they don't even hide that they're against taxpayer-friendly priorities at the legislature. In fact, if you take TASB's advocacy agenda from last session, TML's advocacy agenda from last session, you know, I mentioned a couple of reforms. I mentioned moving our elections or bond elections or tax increase elections to a uniform election date in November. If you go through the TASB agenda, you'll find that they have a priority that spells the complete opposite of that. And you do that for TML, for TAC, you'll almost find all every single tax reform priority that we're trying to accomplish next session, that the governor's trying to accomplish, that Lieutenant Garpatrick, Speaker Burroughs, is trying to accomplish on those agendas.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Yeah. As the opposite to fight them.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Right. And Speaker Burroughs knows this better than anyone because before he became Speaker, he was the champion on this. He was the champion on a lot of reforms that really upset some of these folks, like TML. Uh, I remember sitting there in 2023. I'll give him kudos because in the legislature, usually legislation gets watered down. You go in with that 200% win, but you come out with a win, but maybe not that uh wanted. Uh Speaker Burrows went in with a bill, and I'm sidetracking here, but I'll bring it back to TFL. Um, a bill that was done the Death Start bill as a Texas Regulatory Consistency Act. Uh, and that was a big fight. He got a 200% win from that bill, and he went toe-to-toe with TML and the cities who all came out swinging, and he said, I'm not gonna back down. He fought tooth and nail. I my guess is if he had him become speaker, he was gonna champion the ban on tax refinement lobbying last session.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

I think there's a high probability of that as well. And I just have to pause for a second because I hear people who say Dustin is not a conservative. I know him. He is my representative. I love that he's Speaker of Texas. I mean, last session, I think, was arguably one of the most conservative sessions as far as the policies that we passed and the breadth and depth of the policies that we passed. And I'm so proud of him. And I hate it when people want to hang him on, you know. I hear this all the time from people across Texas. They're like, well, he allowed Democrats to be vice chairs. And I'm like, who cares? Like the vice chair has no power anyway, right? It was all Republican chairman, but look at what we accomplished. It's been 20 years since we accomplished as much as we did last session. So I just wanted to pause there just to say thank you to Speaker Burroughs and to Senator Perry as well, here from the Lubbock area. But he's amazing and he's so pragmatic. And he will, like if he believes in something, he will fight tooth and nail until he gets it and not compromise, right? But he is a very pragmatic leader. And um, I really appreciate that about him. That he is very, very conservative, despite what some people would have you believe when they they want something else.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

In fact, I'll add this before he decided to run speaker, maybe just a few weeks before he did so, uh, he was at TBPF and we were talking about the ban on tax refundant lobbying. And he was gonna hell, you know, any ban on tax refinant lobbying has to include the associations.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

They have done way too much damage at the legislature on a lot of our taxpayer-friendly priorities.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yes. And what I've known with TASB, that association for education, um, they fight all of our good bills, they create false narratives, they send them out to the school boards, and then the school boards start getting them out to the parents and the teachers. And it's not true. And I want people to start questioning what you hear coming out of TASB because the majority of the time, what they're the narrative that they're spinning is not accurate. And so um, that's something that I'm really hoping that we can bring light to and let the viewers see and start spreading across Texas because, and by the way, for those of you that don't know, if you're on a school board or if you're a parent and you want to go tell your school board, there is an option. You don't have to use TASBE. It doesn't have to be Texas Essential School Boards. They are not a state entity. There is another option that I believe is better, which is TEE, which is Texans for Excellence in Education. Talk to your school board about switching from TASB to Texans for Excellence in Education. And I I I get nothing from that, but I just think that um we've got to start breaking up the monopoly that TASB has over our school boards and and the taxpayer-funded lobbying.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

I'll point out something that I find striking uh over the last couple of months. I've mentioned we're heading into a tax reform session. That's gonna be top of mind. You know, the governor, I think, has said that he's going to war on this issue next session.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

And it was big campaign issues to issues.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

And it's his central focus on the campaign trump. Yes. One of the things I'm seeing, because, you know, as you know, TBPF, as you might imagine, is not very friendly with TASB or TML or TAC. You know, we're seen as their biggest enemy.

unknown 27:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Because you're bringing light to what's actually happening.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

That's right. And and so one of the things I've noticed over the last couple of months is the outreach that I perceive from TML, TASPY, TAC, former members of those organizations, because they see what's coming down the pipeline next session. It's it's finally coming to fruition, right? We've dabbled with tax reform in the past, last sessions. But next go run, it's going to be fully fledged effort on this issue alone. And they're bracing themselves. They're scared.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Well, they should be.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

They're trying to be friendly with you.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

And I hope that we smash up.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Mind blowing to me. Yeah. They're being friendly with us.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Yeah. No, that's that's mind blowing to me too. You know, because they have, I mean, it's my understanding that TPPF was formed 36 years ago to start with parent choice, right? The education savings accounts that we passed last session. And you all have always been hardcore, very conservative, but very much for the people to protect the taxes and make sure the people have what they need. And yes, I I know Mandy Drogan and I talk about um our disdain for uh TASB and and some other things quite often because we see them as stopping the transformation of our education system, stopping the improvement that we need for the kids. I mean, heck, last year they continued to fight the education savings accounts, but we got it passed, thanks to the governor, this the lieutenant governor and the speaker, and also TPPF for leading that that charge as well. They also fought HV2, which was $8.5 billion in additional funding, 60% of which was going to teachers. Why would Texas Association of School Boards fight that bill? I mean, it just doesn't make sense when you paper it and you really look at what the bills are and then the narrative that they push and the things that they're fighting for, they are fighting against the very people that they're telling they're fighting for.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

It's uh seemingly never enough for them.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

If you were to one quote simple question you should ask anyone that's pushing for more money for school funding is how much do you need? They won't give you a number. They don't know how much more they need. Yeah. You brought up a good issue because we focused on banning tax revenue lobbying being from the property tax reform perspective. But this tax refinant lobbying touches just about every issue at the law center.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

You mentioned education, uh, you know, school choice. One of the strategies we're trying to employ is looking at everything that they touch and bringing together a coalition wide enough, capturing all these issues. It's like we're not saying that you should be with us, even non-traditional groups that are, you know, on the other side of the aisle. But take, for example, housing affordability. It's one of the issues I cover with TBPF.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

But housing affordability is a very bipartisan issue across party lines, because we all want to achieve the dream of homeownership. And one of the things I've noticed is that our bills were heavily targeted by cities and counties in taxpayer fund lobbyists. In fact, I had a call from uh one of our coalition partners, who's not conservative. She said, I've noticed there's a lot of these lobbyists here in the room, in the committee room, cities, and that's those are the boatload of the folks opposing our bills. And so I started educating her on the practice of taxpair fund lobbying. And so it triggered the thought after last session, we need to expand our coalition. Yes. Bring folks together that are non-traditional to get this done next session. One of the biggest, and you mentioned her earlier, one of the biggest supporters I have and best partners that I have is Manny Drogan. When she got school of choice done last session, she quickly turned around and looked at me and said, let's get the ban on taxpayer funded lobbying done. So we made a late push last session, but obviously because there was so much being done last session. That's uh that's an issue that her and I are gonna be tackling heading into next session.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Well, I'm excited about it because I think that it's it's so critically important. It's critically important for education, but it's critically important for everything in every city, in every community that's out there. I mean, it really is critically important. All right. Well, tell me what else you want to talk about today. What what new other new things are you working on?

SPEAKER_01 31:38

You know, uh one of the things we're looking at, and you may see a hearing on this in August potentially, is a lot of the, and this kind of gets at the property tax reform side, but it's is it's standalone interim charge heading into August, um, dealing with uh local spending uh in terms of how cities appropriate funds towards, you know, third-party uh consultants, NGOs to these nonprofit organizations. And you look at cities like Austin, Houston, Dallas, you look at their books and they're sending money to these DEI trans queer groups, and you got to think to yourself, or is is this really where money should be going? Is it incumbent on cities to be spending money on these kinds of expenses?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Or you can get behind affordable housing, you can get behind having ambulances and fire trucks, you can get behind having good roads, right? But at what point does it getting into the softer, more emotional things, is that the position of a city? I don't think it is, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:48

That's right. And I'll single out one issue where it's well-meaning, but it's also how they go about it, right? Homelessness. Yes. It's a big problem in our big cities, right? Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio. Now, there's a whole industry in this space, right? A lot of those dollars come from the federal government and it go down to our cities to address the issue of homelessness. Now, for the last 10 years or so, a lot of those federal dollars go towards one thing is to people put a roof under people, right? Put them in housing.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

That they're vegan to win from that.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Sure. And a good portion of the population is folks who are dealing with mental health issues.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

That don't necessarily want to be in a building.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

And even if you put them in a building, you're not addressing the root cost of their issues. Correct. Right? You're housing them, but they're still dealing with mental illness, drug addiction, and so on. One of the things we've noticed is that at the at the local level in Austin, when that those dollars are being spent, they're being sent to specific groups, nonprofits that deal in homelessness. And a lot of times those dollars aren't being used wisely. Uh, and so one good example of that is back in November, uh, the city of Moss had a prop queue uh on the ballot that called for tons of money to go towards homelessness. But people got fed up. People said, We've seen what you've done with this money before, and it hasn't really produced results.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

And people don't, it's not that people don't care about the homeless.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

We want to help those who are less poor than they want to see the money actually produce good for for that particular group of people. And when when you're spending the money and you've given it before and then you don't see the positive benefits, you're less likely to do it again. That's right. So I serve on the board of the uh Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. And we've got to be addressing the mental health issue across all of these different things in schools and in our homeless population. You know, COVID made mental health issues worse, or or at the very least, it it made us it more visible. I think if you were to take the taxpayer money and use it to address the mental health issue, not just give vendors a bunch of money to put houses over people's heads, but actually the underlying problem, as you said, I think that's that's the more important issue.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

I think you hit the nail on the head. This shouldn't be optional, it should be a requirement if you want this housing. Oh, you have to do mental health, whether it's mental health analysis or job skills, things of that nature, things that are going to reintegrate that person into society.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Yeah. And I think I think both those things, I think, I think they need to be a systematic approach, right? The assessment of their mental health, then helping them get the help, then helping them get skills, right? And then and then merging them back into society to to help take care of themselves.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

All this to say that uh one of the biggest things we're working on this summer ahead of a potential August hearing is looking at how dollars are being spent at the local level.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

I think that's so critically important. And I know um, like here in Lubbock, we have ladies who that's part of our Lubbock Area Republican Women Group. And I mean, they're constantly on it. And and I love when I see citizens getting involved like that, right? And going and looking at the financials, right? And digging through them and not just believing what you're being told all the time, right? Because there is so much that is hidden from us that we when we and you know, I've been on a a tangent recently on several of these podcasts where I'm like, people have to start getting involved. People have to start paying attention. A couple of podcasts ago, I was talking about farmers, and I literally said, and ranchers, and I'm a rancher, and I said, we've got to pull our head up out of the soil and look at what's happening. And and I think the general public needs to be doing that too, right? Especially as you see your dollars going out, make sure that they're being used well, right? Go and investigate at your city level and at your county level. Look at the state. I mean, we we just hired a new comp troler. You know, we were talking about getting rid of um property taxes, and that was his big driving um campaign slogan was he was going to get rid of all property taxes. I know he's got a big plan to make Doge even bigger. Um, and then here we have the big three with the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker all coming out to work on the property taxes and and and really making sure that our dollars are being used well. And I'm so grateful to all of them.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Absolutely. You know, in a meeting recently where I was talking about this issue about the spending that's going on at the local level, going to NGOs, third-party consultants. We were talking about, you know, the city's appropriate funds. And uh a gentleman who was sitting across from me said, Well, we need a maha. And I said, What do you mean, maha? Make America healthy again? He said, No, make appropriations hard again.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

I love that. That's really good. Make appropriations hard again. Okay, that's good. Except for when it comes to the good stuff for education. No, I'm just kidding. So if you were going to tell a viewer the best way for them to figure out how to get involved, like what to do, do you have suggestions for them at their local level? And I know obviously I want you to talk more about how they can get involved with TPPF. And so for those we keep referring to it as TPPF, and you've heard a lot of acronyms today. So I just want to make sure it's Texas Public Policy Foundation and it's based in Austin. And it's a group that I work with regularly and I support, and um I think they do a lot of good. I know that it's highly, highly regarded by everybody down at the state capitol. And when people have questions about whether a bill is good or not, they turn to you guys for advice. And so tell people how how how they can best get involved and do more.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Sure. So I'll um talk about it through my experience. So when I got involved in policy and politics, you know, first be people usually gravitate towards what they see right in front of them, which is usually if we turn on TV, it's Fox News. So when I was in college, I said, I want to go intern in Congress. And I did that. I went and intern there, and it was great. You know, I was like a little kid in a candy shop for the first week or so. And then eventually I started learning the inner workings of the belly of the beast. And I was like, how do people get things done up here? Yeah, how do you move the needle here? So I came back to Texas and then I started getting familiarized with the state legislature. So I started doing that, and I realized, wow, it doesn't take too much if you've you're disciplined and you put in the work, you can move the needle here.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

And that's even more so at the local level. You know, there's offices that if you call them on any given issue four or five times on that on any given day, they're like, hey, that raises alarm bells. It's like that's the fourth call we got to say on tax reform. We need to see what's going on back home.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Uh, so you can do a lot by doing just a little.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Uh, in terms of resources, TPPF does a number of things, right? Our bread and butter is research. You know, we have extensive white papers on various issues covering the full spectrum that you usually see at the Capitol. But in addition to that, we try to make it more digestible too. So, like I like to accompany research papers at one pagers, quick top lines that everything you need to know about an issue. Now, not everyone likes written products. So, as you mentioned earlier, I have a podcast. And funny enough, just a couple of months after I started Tax Per Empowerment, I had a gal who came up to me at a speaking engagement, and she said, you know, I went to my city council meeting for the first time, and I did so after watching your episode with San Antonio City Council member Mark White, because really outlined what I need to be looking for, what I need to be doing. And so after watching your episode, I decided to go to my city council meeting and started engaging. So we try to do our best to cover the full gamut of resources, video, um, audio, papers, what have you, in order to best meet the needs of folks.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

No, I love every time I've had a question about a policy, I know that I can go on your website or I can pick up the phone and call someone at TPPF and get information. And not just your side, but you guys will say, and here's other resources, right? This is where we got this, that you cite your sources so that then I can go and do even more in-depth investigation if I'd like. Um and I really, really appreciate that. Um, and you're totally correct. I'm sitting here today and I have been working on policy for the last few sessions because I was just like you. I was like, how do I affect change? Like you've, and and I think a lot of viewers can can understand this too, right? There's something in your life that's not right and you want to change it. Ask questions. Go to your representatives, go to your your your county representatives, go to your city council members and your mayor, go ask in their offices. There are people in their offices that will help you, but but most importantly, get out and vote, right? Like I'm some days, depending on the election, it sickens me at how few people are getting out and voting. And I have people all the time who go, I don't want to get political. And and trust me, the political can get nasty, right? We just had a really nasty election cycle here in the Lubbock area. But that's not what it's all about. When you get to the policy level, when you get down to a specific topic, it is something that you can make and you can effect change. And there are people in the city, in the county, your representatives, your senators in their offices who will help you. There are great organizations that can help people, but we've all got to start paying attention. Got our pull, pull our head out of the sand, out of the soil, and start figuring out how we stand in the gap and start being the change that we want to see. And that's what I would really like all the viewers to take away today is there are good things going on. You've got to do your research, make sure what you're being told is true. Even when you hear it here, go do your own research and go make sure that what you're being told is true and ask for help and then start standing in the gap and trying to turn it around. And I've found policy and calling the elected officials is the best way to do that.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Yeah, you mentioned the need to vote, uh and I'll end with this example. So yeah, I was up in Dallas for a speaking engagement uh back in April, and it was right before the May bond election up there. So Dallas ISD had a $6.2 billion bond package. It's the biggest proposed bond ever in state history.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

I at this speaking engagement that I was in Dallas for, I was seated next to a poll worker who had just been working at her polling location that day before she came to this dinner event. And she was telling me, you know, she had a gentleman who came up to her at the polling location asking, Is this where you wrote for the runoff election? I want to vote for Maze Middleton and Ken Paxton. And she looked at him and said, No, uh, this is for the bond election that we're currently having. Runoff elections at the end of the month, next month. And the gentleman just turned around and went back to his car. He was right there at the polling location, could have gone and voted against the bond. But I don't think people we need to educate more people. Yes. Because I don't know that they understand that when that bond passes, I mean it's your you're gonna see that in your property tax bill.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Yes. And even if you don't own property, you're going to see it in something that you're paying for. Because when a a business has to pay property taxes, that gets dispersed across all their goods and you end up paying for it one way or another, right? It's not just when you're the property owner. So it will affect everybody in a community. And it's really critically important. And then on top of that, like go and make sure that you the taxpayer money is being spent effectively and on the things that are important to you in your community, right? If you think a pool is critical to your community, go and make sure the money is not being spent on something else frivolous and get the pool, right? Advocate for what you want to see in your communities with your elected officials and be the squeaky will against the grease. Absolutely. Okay. Well, tell everyone how they can get a hold of you and follow you and follow your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

Sure. Uh, you can find everything on texaspolicy.com. You can find my podcast here. My bio has my contact info. Shoot me an email. The more I hear from people, the better that I can do with my products at TBPF.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Well, again, everyone, this has been an interview with Jose Melendez. We've covered a variety of topics. I'd like to tell you thank you again for coming. You know, it's been great today talking about the taxpayer-funded lobbying, about all of the bonds and the school bonds that are that are have happened and that are coming. And I don't even think that I mentioned that on the taxpayer-funded lobbying side, this last session, there was $111 million of taxpayer dollars that were spent for lobbying. And that's just crazy to me that that's where our money is going. And oftentimes to work against the very things that the taxpayers want. So thank you for coming today. And um, is there any last thing that you'd like to share with anybody?

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Stay involved. Keep the fight. One of the things you mentioned tax refunded lobbying, one of the things I like to see next session is more people showing up to their capital because the fight is usually TPPF and a few allies against the powers that be your cities or counties or tax refundant lobbyists. We need more help at the Capitol.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Yeah, absolutely. Um we have here ladies here from Lubbock, our Lubbock Air Republican women go down there frequently for different topics, a lot of education things, tax uh tax relief. And in fact, we took a bus just two weeks ago down to Austin to go and testify at the State Board of Education for our social studies teeks and our literary list and for the personal financial literacy. And so thank you to all those ladies. Thank you to everybody who gets out and works to make our communities better, whether it's the government or our nonprofit. So thank y'all. So thank you, Jose, for coming today. And that's going to be a wrap on today's show. I hope that you will join us next time to find out more ways that we can help transform our K through 12 education system. Thanks for joining us.