Posts tagged Texas Constitution’s Gift Clauses
The Texas Supreme Court recently handed a significant victory to taxpayers, and Louisiana lawmakers should take note.
July 29, 2024 // The court held that the CBA did not authorize union activities like lobbying, supporting candidates, or engaging in other partisan political activities while on release time. To allow this type of activity would violate the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clauses, which prohibit state and local governments from allocating public resources to private purposes. Release time is time spent conducting union business—lobbying, attending conferences, or negotiating collective bargaining agreements—for which the member is granted paid time away from the job he or she was hired to do. In other words, it’s a form of taxpayer funded lobbying.
National Right to Work Foundation Urges TX Supreme Court to Nix Scheme Directing Taxpayer Funds to Union Boss Activities
March 6, 2023 // Landmark Janus Decision Shows How Union Bosses Use “Official Time” to Prop Up Union Politics The Foundation points out in its amicus brief the Janus Court’s holding that union monopoly bargaining activities “constitute speech and petitioning on matters of political…concern,” and that by funneling taxpayer money into such speech “the City is effectively paying individuals to lobby the City for a private advocacy organization and its members.” “The notion that this political advocacy predominantly serves a public purpose, as opposed to predominantly benefiting the private organization, is untenable,” the brief reads.