Twelve-Step Program for Government Spending
By Goldwater Institute: Ben Barr (01/12/07)
Taxpayer-funded lobbying proves expensive and unnecessary - After the New Year, some of us look back and promise to drop those extra pounds, pay off our credit cards, or stop drinking. Twelve-step programs have proven popular in this regard. Perhaps with the ringing in of the New Year, it's time for government spenders to sober up. Here's one easy step in that direction.
Get rid of government lobbyists. Taxpayer- funded lobbying--that is, government bodies lobbying other government bodies--grows government at a dizzying pace. For example, between 2000 and 2005, the state Department of Transportation spent $1.3 million on lobbying activities.
Government lobbyists promote the best interests of their agencies, not citizens. The practice distorts the democratic process by drowning out the voice of regular Arizonans. The First Amendment is based on the premise that citizen participation is the cornerstone of a healthy republic. Instead of bolstering citizen voices, taxpayer-funded lobbying pits the interests of government bodies against those of ordinary citizens.
Florida has severely curtailed this practice by prohibiting state entities from using public funds for lobbying. Florida also forbids executive branch departments, state colleges, and water management districts from directly hiring lobbyists. Arizona should take similar steps and ban government entities from hiring, contracting with, or employing lobbyists. It should also consider limiting indirect lobbying, where government bodies pay membership fees to organizations that lobby for them.
Taxpayers can do without government lobbyists. Let’s hope this year the legislators decide they can do without them too.
Ben Barr is a constitutional policy analyst with the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Studies. Watch for a new Goldwater Institute policy report on this subject later this month.
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/aboutus/ArticleView.aspx?id=1347
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