Austin News

Former City of Taylor Mayor Jesse Ancira has joined the Texas Municipal League (TML) as a top state lobbyist.

Ancira, who also previously served as general counsel and chief of staff for former Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus, assumed his new post earlier this month.

Ancira has garnered attention for his record of having “consistently voted in Democrat primaries,” and at the time of his retirement, Straus was formally reprimanded by GOP over a record that saw him regularly oppose Republican Party priorities, the Texas Scorecard reported. 

“TML is infamous for lobbying against common-sense reforms that would make cities and their officials more transparent and accountable to taxpayers,” the Texas Scorecard opined. “They also have no shame about their lobbying prowess, as their website touts their ‘power ranking’ as a government lobbyist.”

Last year, TML led the charge in opposing property tax reform efforts after Straus had previously blocked similar measures twice in 2017, the Scorecard said.

The reforms sought to give Texans an automatic vote on city property tax increases of 2.5 percent or more per year.

Such hikes would come after a city had already added new revenue in the automatic collection from population growth and new economic development. House Ways and Means Chairman Dustin Burrows’ (R-Lubbock) compromise proposal was also thwarted, with TML again leading the charge, the Scorecard said.  

“This allowed cities and counties to gouge property taxpayers in 2019 without immediate recourse, of which many took advantage,” the article said.