Texas Public Policy Foundation

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) is a conservative think tank founded in 1989 by James R. Leininger. It is a member of the right-wing State Policy Network (SPN) and is based in Austin, Texas. It has ties to Texas Governor and former presidential candidate Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, and many other powerful politicians.

According to the TPPF's website, its mission "is to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation by educating and affecting policymakers and the Texas public policy debate with academically sound research and outreach."

But according to critics, TPPF's research and advocacy is influenced by donations from a relatively small group of major corporations. Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, told the Texas Observer, “Most think tanks work for their funders and TPPF’s donors are a Who’s Who of Texas polluters, giant utilities and big insurance companies. TPPF is thinking the way its donors want it to think.”

Funding
TPPF's "laissez-faire bent and championing of big-business agendas (tort reform, tax cuts, deregulation) [have] created wealthy allies," as noted by the Texas Observer. The newspaper spoke with a former TPPF vice president, who described the organization's corporate fundraising strategy this way:


 * "Melinda Hasting -- who served as the foundation’s vice president from 1996 to 1998 but has since broken with the conservative movement -- says one fundraising tactic involved approaching corporations, wealthy businessmen, and corporate-funded foundations with a pitch. Hasting (formerly Melinda Wheatley) describes it: 'We think this is beneficial to your industry and would you consider providing us with a non-profit contribution. … Here’s the timeline for the completion of the research; the parameters of the research are this; we expect it will result in some savings or outsourcing.'"

The TPPF's 2005 annual report states that the groups budget was $1,759,602 million, an almost 30% increase on its 2004 budget. Individual contributors accounted for just over half the contributions, unspecified corporations $259,000 or 15% with the remainder from unspecified foundations.

Media Transparency lists TPPF as having received 26 grants totalling $491,749 (unadjusted for inflation) between 1998 and 2004 from a range of foundations including :
 * Armstrong Foundation
 * Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
 * Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation
 * Jaquelin Hume Foundation
 * JM Foundation
 * Roe Foundation
 * Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation

TPPF has received $15,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998, $5,000 in 2001 and $10,000 in 2004. 

According to a November 2013 report by Progress Texas and the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), over the past few years TPPF "has received at least $3,314,591 from the billionaire Koch brothers or the organizations they support." This includes $733,333 received from the Koch family foundations and from Koch Industries, and $2,581,258 from the Donors Trust & Donors Capital Fund. TPPF also "received nearly $300,000 from the Searle Freedom Trust between 2007 to 2011."

The Progress Texas and CMD report also notes that TPPF "claimed in 2008 that it spent nothing on lobbying," however, "it told the IRS that it spent $981,869 on lobbying between 2009 and 2010." While federal tax reports for 2012 are not yet available, "forms filed with the state of Texas indicate that between 2011 and 2013, TPPF has spent at least $100,000 on lobbying the Texas Legislature – largely on gifts, food, drinks, and transportation to Texas legislators and state offices." In 2011, TPPF's tax records also indicate the organization "paid its executive corporate-level salaries that dwarf the rates paid for most other public interest groups in Austin..." (specifically, $1.391 million of the $5.7 million budget was used to pay executive salaries).

Koch Money and Mystery Slush Funds: Funders of SPN Member Think Tanks
In 2012, a list of 2010 funders of TPPF that was disclosed to the IRS was inadvertently made public. The list of funders revealed is an important case study in how SPN's member think tanks are funded, and by whom. Koch Industries, for example, gave $159,834 directly to TPPF, in addition to $69,788.61 from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which is a Koch Family Foundation. SPN itself gave TPPF $49,306.90, but what's more, Tracie Sharp, SPN's executive director, was the contact person for an additional $495,000. These two grants, for $300,000 and $195,000, were listed as being received from the "State Think Tank Fund" and the "Government Transparency Fund," respectively -- two funds about which virtually nothing is known.

Core Financials
 2011  :
 * Total Revenue: $5,756,074.00
 * Total Expenses:$4,948,598.00
 * Net Assets: $4,235,880.00

 2010  :
 * Total Revenue: $4,674,836.00
 * Total Expenses: $3,390,188.00
 * Net Assets: $3,428,404.00

 2009  :
 * Total Revenue: $3,223,804.00
 * Total Expenses: $3,026,663.00
 * Net Assets: $2,143,756.00

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
The Texas Public Policy Foundation has been very active in the American Legislative Exchange Council. TPPF was a member of the now defunct Public Safety and Elections Task Force, and has been an ardent defender of ALEC activities. In May 2012, Wendy Lee Gramm, the Foundation’s chairman of the board, and Brooke Rollins, its president and chief executive officer, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Why the Left Wants to Blacklist ALEC,” in defense of the organization.

TPPF is a member of several other ALEC task forces. Dr. Thomas Lindsay, Director of TPPF's Center for Higher Education, is vice chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee of ALEC's Education Task Force as of November 2013. Executive Director, Arlene Wohlgemuth, is a member of the Health and Human Services Task Force where she has sponsored model legislation (the "Health Professional Modernization Act" and the "Health Care Compact Act"). Mario Loyola, director of the Center for Tenth Amendment Studies is a member of the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force where is also sponsored model legislation (the "Regional Air Quality Interstate Compact")

Marc Levin, who is the director of the Center for Effective Justice for TPPF, is a member of the Civil Justice Task Force, where he is the private chair of the "Overcriminalization Subcommittee." Previously, Levin was a member of the Public Safety and Elections Task Force where he sponsored several pieces of model legislation, including the “Resolution in Support of Victim Offender Mediation,” the “Criminal Intent Protection Act,” the “Treating Accused Persons Fairly Act,” the “Civil Liability Relief for Employers Hiring Ex-Offenders Act,” the “Resolution on the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act,” the “Provisional Licenses for Ex-Offenders Act,” the “Juvenile Offender Performance Incentive Funding Act,” and the “Resolution on Transparency and Accountability in Criminal Law.”

Talmadge Heflin, director of TPPF's Center for Fiscal Policy, is a member of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force

SPN, of which TPPF is a prominent member, has deep ties to ALEC. Please see SPN Ties to ALEC for more.

Lobbying
According to Progress Texas and the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), "in the 2013 legislative session, TPPF advocated for at least 28 different laws that mirrored ALEC model bills..." The following table --which compares ALEC's model legislation to the current agenda of TPPF --was taken directly from the organizational report created by Progress Texas and CMD in November 2013:

Board of Directors

 * Brooke L. Rollins (President)
 * William A. McMinn (Chairman)
 * Wendy Gramm, Chairman Emeritus; Distinguisheed Scholar, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
 * James R. Leininger, Founder, Former CEO and Chair, Kinetic Concepts,
 * Tim Dunn, Vice Chairman; CEO CrownQuest Operating
 * Ernest Angelo, Treasurer; Managing Partner, Discovery Exploration


 * Phil D. Adams, Owner Phil Adams Company
 * Ramiro Galindo, Founder & CEO, R.A. Galindo
 * Bill Jones, Vinson & Elkins
 * Dale Laine, Laine Strategy Group


 * Tim Lyles
 * Vance C. Miller, Chairman, President & CEO Henry. S. Miller Companies
 * John L. Nau, III, Silver Eagle Distributors
 * Brenda Pejovich, Founder and Former CEO Pejovich & Assoc
 * Jeff Sandefer, Sandefer Capital Partners
 * Fritz Steiger, Founder and Former President TPPF
 * Michael Stevens, Chairmen and CEO, Michael Stevens Interests

Senior Fellows

 * John Barrett
 * Michael Bond
 * Patrick Brockett
 * H. Sterling Burnett
 * Wendell Cox
 * Robert W. Crandall
 * Jerry Ellig
 * Timothy J. Gronberg, Ph.D.
 * Christopher Hammons
 * Eric Hanushek
 * David A. Hartman
 * Devon M. Herrick
 * Milton Holloway
 * Ronald A. Kaiser
 * Matthew Ladner
 * Maurice P. McTigue
 * Haavi Morreim
 * Grover Norquist
 * Randal O'Toole
 * John Pisciotta
 * Nat Shapo
 * James C. Smith
 * Ronald Trowbridge
 * David G. Tuerck
 * Richard Vedder, Ph.D.
 * Bob Williams
 * Patrick Wolf

Staff

 * Brooke Rollins President
 * Michael Quinn Sullivan Vice President
 * Chris Patterson Director of Research
 * Byron Schlomach Chief Economist
 * Mary Katherine Stout Health Care Policy Analyst
 * Bill Peacock Economic Freedom Policy Analyst
 * Marc Levin Director, Center for Effective Justice
 * Shari Hanrahan Director of Development
 * Talmadge Helfin
 * Nancy Druart Events, Publications & Marketing Manager
 * Nathan Thompson, Director of Operations
 * Arlene Wohlgemuth

Contact Details
900 Congress Ave., Ste. 400 Austin, TX 78701 Phone 512.472.2700 Fax 512.472.2728 Email: info AT TexasPolicy.com Web: http://www.texaspolicy.com

External Resources

 * "Perry, staff took Bahamas trip paid for by donors", Associated Press, 24 February 2004

External articles

 * Forrest Wilder, Revealed: The Corporations and Billionaires that Fund the Texas Public Policy Foundation, The Texas Observer, August 24, 2012.


 * Abby Rapoport, Education Inc. - How private companies are profiting from Texas public schools., The Texas Observer, September 6, 2011. "...students and parents must now contend with a business-education complex in which industries perpetuate ideologies, and ideologies keep industries afloat."


 * S.C. GWYNNE and GARY JACOBSON, Entrepreneur and Perry friend puts Texas at center of higher education firestorm, Dallas Morning News, June 25, 2011.


 * Paul J. Weber, AP, Senate Republicans want to tap state piggy bank, Austin American Statesman, April 11, 2013.


 * Bill King, Perry waging a war over higher education, Houston Chronicle, January 16, 2013.


 * Valerie Strauss, Why U. of Texas academics blasted Gov. Rick Perry, The Washington Post, August 29, 2011.


 * Nick Anderson, Head of major university group weighs in on U-Va., The Washington Post, October 25, 2012.