As lawmakers seek to end taxpayer-funded lobbying this session, recently-surfaced information suggests that a Democrat legislator is pocketing a six-figure salary from an organization that receives money from taxpayer-funded lobbying group Texas Association of School Boards.
State Rep. Mary Gonzalez (D-San Elizario) is the executive director of the Mexican American School Boards Association, which was renamed to the School Board Members for Latino Equity.
In an email obtained by Texas Scorecard, Texas Latino School Boards Association Executive Director Jayme Mathias asserted that Gonzalez’s organization receives monetary support from the Texas Association of School Boards.
State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) has described TASB as “a liberal, extremist, taxpayer-funded lobbying organization that hates parents, lobbies against education opportunities for poor families, and supports men in girls’ locker rooms.”
According to Mathias’ email, TASB funds MASBA to the tune of over $100,000 per year. TASB confirmed to Texas Scorecard that it has had a licensing agreement with MASBA for nearly a decade.
“Presently, we do not have a similar agreement with the Texas Latino School Boards Association (TLSBA),” a spokesperson for TASB said. “It should be noted that TLSBA’s current executive director previously served as the executive director of MASBA, and our affinity and licensing agreement was also in place at that time.”
MASBA’s 990 tax form for fiscal year 2023 reveals that Gonzalez received a salary of $113,750—28 percent of the nonprofit’s total revenue for the year. Mathias wrote that Gonzalez’s salary has contributed to the fact that MASBA has cut back on the number of scholarships it awards to Hispanic students in Texas.
He claimed that the high pay Gonzalez receives “likely explains why MASBA went from awarding over 180 scholarships in 2021, under my and the Godfather’s [Louis Q. Rayes, III] leadership, to awarding only six scholarships last year—half of which seem ‘pork barrel’ gifts to students in State Representative González’s house district.”
The email continued:
You can imagine my sadness that TASB supports “School Board Members for Latino Equity” to the tune of over $100,000 per year—let that sink in: over $100,000 of support for a state representative’s non-profit—while refusing to consider even a penny for a state school boards association like the TLSBA.
Texas Scorecard reached out to Gonzalez for her response to Mathias’ accusations. She has yet to comment.
This comes as lawmakers are looking to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying, which was flagged as one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priorities this legislative session as well as a priority of the Republican Party of Texas.
State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) filed a measure on Thursday to end the practice.
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