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Taxpayer Funded Lobbying On The Rise In SC

YOUR MONEY BEING IS SPENT TO SPEND EVEN MORE OF YOUR MONEY

FITSNews - June 19, 2008 - Every year, House Majority Leader Jim Merrill introduces a bill that would ban the budget-busting practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying in South Carolina … and every year big government backers in the Republican Party team up with the Democrats to make sure Merrill’s bill goes absolutely nowhere.

It’s an annual exercise in futility, as powerful government interests use your money to retain ethically-challenged lobbyists to help them perpetuate their own growth.

According to a report from the S.C. Policy Council, the problem of taxpayer-funded lobbying is only getting worse in South Carolina, jumping from $2.5 million in 2005 to $3 million in 2006, the most recent year for which numbers are available.

Sure, that’s chump change in a $7 billion budget - until you realize that money went directly to feeding the growth of that budget, and that lobbyists only have to bill for the time they actually spend working directly with lawmakers.

From the Policy Council report:

Government is growing faster than our incomes, and a wide range of positive reform has been squashed behind the scenes. There is a common reason for both of those two movements – the power of taxpayer-financed lobbyists. Lobbyists for state agencies and local governments are paid for with taxpayers’ dollars to petition lawmakers for even more public spending – their job is to take the budget process to the back halls of the Statehouse and away from the open floor of the legislature.

Instead of spending public dollars on core functions of government, South Carolina counties, cities and school districts are paying high-powered lobbyists to fight for more public money and thwart accountability and transparency. In 2006, taxpayers spent almost $3 million on publicly financed lobbyists – that was a 15 percent increase from the $2.5 million spent in 2005.

Taxpayer funded lobbyists present a conflict of interest and waste taxpayer money. The Legislature’s annual budget process gives state agencies and local governments many opportunities to explain and justify their budgetary needs, and to make the case for important projects. University presidents, state agency heads and other public entities should have many qualified employees to answer legislators’ questions and present information to the General Assembly. The public should never finance lobbying, especially when they pay to fight for an agenda they often do not support.

That’s the main beef we have with taxpayer-funded lobbying … specifically, why should an individual South Carolinian have to pay for the legislative advocacy of an issue they don’t agree with?

We waste enough money in this state as it is … why should we pay people whose very existence revolves around getting us to waste even more?

Not surprisingly, that’s popular logic in a Republican state like South Carolina.

It’s also why several big government Republicans put a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying at the top of their 2008 reelection platform - despite the fact that none of them lifted a finger to help pass Merrill’s bill.

For his part, Merrill is stepping down as Majority Leader this year - meaning he’ll be free from his cat-herding responsibilities and will have more time to push meaningful conservative legislation.

Let’s hope a long-overdue ban on the shameful practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying remains at the top of his list …

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