The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Government Reform and Oversight Coalition released research urging the Texas Legislature to create an Office of State Sovereignty to monitor and coordinate federal money flowing to state and local governments. The Austin-based conservative policy organization announced the paper in a Sept. 9 news release.
TPPF argues in the release that excessive federal aid to state and local governments can distort the policy landscape, prompt unnecessary growth in budgets and institutions, and result in lasting change the organization describes as detrimental to life, liberty and property rights. The foundation said both past experience and existing academic literature support that conclusion.
“The federal government’s largesse regularly influences recipient governments to think and act poorly,” said James Quintero of TPPF in the release. He pointed to budget decisions he attributes to the end of pandemic-era funding: “Consider that in today’s post-COVID funding environment, many Texas governments have continued funding pandemic-era positions and programs using own-source revenues now that federal aid has expired. This means property taxpayers are bearing a bigger burden for more government that was never intended to be permanent.” Quintero said the current landscape “lacks coordination, oversight, and accountability” and called that an invitation for duplication and waste.
Ben Crockett of TPPF said in the release that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and that increased federal aid to local governments tends to lead to higher long-term expenditures and taxes. Crockett said federal grants during the Biden administration drew Texas local governments into programs he characterized as advancing DEI and environmental justice, and argued the state should not allow cities, counties and school districts to become dependent on federal funding priorities.
The research makes three central points, according to the release. Texas lacks a centralized system to oversee federal grants potentially flowing to more than 5,000 local governments. Federal grants frequently carry policy conditions that the foundation says expand Washington’s influence and can conflict with the state’s limited-government approach. And long-term reliance on federal aid, the paper contends, tends to increase government spending, reduce discretion and choice, and create fiscal dependence.
The findings and the recommendation are TPPF’s own. The release does not include responses from state agencies or from the local governments that administer federal grant money, and the foundation did not name a legislative sponsor for the proposed office. The full research paper is posted on the organization’s website.