Here’s an interesting story from Jon Collins, the legislative correspondent for the Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and other northern papers. I’ll show you the headline as it appeared in the Mesabi Daily News:
Lobbyists outnumber lawmakers by 4-1
Good or bad? Both
I’m going to go out on a limb and say mostly bad. I get that “good” organizations have lobbyists, too, who point out important information to our elected representatives. I get that most lobbyists are well-intentioned professionals who believe in what they’re doing. But lobbyists have a disproportionate voice that inherently defends interests that can afford lobbyists above what’s actually good for the actual voters. I know those interests often overlap, but not necessarily and not when major reforms are needed. The fact that lobbyists wander the halls of our Capitol in vastly greater numbers, making vastly more money and wearing vastly better clothing than our elected representatives is a damning fact about our society, regardless of the intentions of those involved. Campaign donations to our lawmakers and the political party units that support them only complicate matters further. Solution? Aye, there’s the rub. Anyone have an idea that wouldn’t violate the First Amendment?
Just my thoughts. The story is well worth a read.
The problems I see are that the halls of the capitol are crawling with lobbyists, most of whom are looking for ways to separate taxpayers from their money. Very few lobbyists are there for the main purpose of protecting the taxpayer. The first change that needs to be made is to reduce or eliminate local government aid to cities and counties that have paid lobbyists or belong to organizations that have paid lobbyists. There are way too many lobbyists that represnet units of government. I don’t want my property taxes going to pay lobbyists who want to take more of my income taxes and sales taxes. The other thing we need to do that may not be politically popular, is to get rid of campaign spending and contribution limits, and implement policies that require more transparency, such as immediate reporting and public posting of contributions to campaigns, political parties and PACS. There are too many PACS that take contributions from other PACS, and it’s nearly impossible to know where the money came from by the time it gets to the candidates who benefit.
I’m with you in spirit. Cities do need a way to petition the legislature, though, and while it’s often money related (LGA, for instance) it’s more often related to language changes for housing projects or zoning or the like.
The root cause here is that professional lobbyists have a vested interest in keeping work. I joke that lobbyists, especially ones working on economic development projects, always tell you their projects are five years out. When the five years are up they tell you that ‘we’re five years in; don’t give up; just five more years!’ I’m a professional writer and when one gig is up I’m looking for more to write about. It doesn’t matter whether people “need” me to write or not.
I waver on the whole PAC thing. I just don’t yet know what the best way to check this system is. I can tell you first hand that PACs and party units absorb A LOT of lobbyist money that no one knows about. It’s public info, but not interesting enough for most folks to follow.
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