Taxpayer-funded Lobbyist Alert

In a barely-noticed article last week in La Socialista, it was reported that the Town of Lexington, S.C. was planning to use an “undetermined” amount of taxpayer funds to engage the services of a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm, making it one of the smallest municipalities in the state to shell out for such an expense.

Among other boondoggles, the town is said to be hiring these taxpayer-funded lobbyists to secure $70 million “to ease traffic congestion downtown, where three major commuter routes intersect.”

Um, the town of Lexington has 16,000 people in it … which is why they call it a “Town” as opposed to a “City.”  And yet their downtown “congestion-easing” plan is going to cost $70 million?

What kind of “major commuter routes” can we realistically be talking about here?

Sheesh … while they’re at it, why not ask for another $70 million to clean up “road apples” from the horse-drawn carriages? Or $20 million for new “hitching posts” outside the local saloon?

Of course you can’t pay for all that by just implementing stiffer fines on cattle-rustlin’ …

Anyway, leading the charge on this latest example of wasting taxpayer money (so that even more taxpayer money can be wasted) is Town Councilman Danny Frazier, who just so happens to be running for the state legislature.

What’s ironic about that?

Well, running against Frazier is former GOP Majority Leader Rick Quinn, who unlike the most recent Majority Leader (Jimmy “Lobbyists Fly Free” Merrill) actually got a taxpayer-funded lobbying ban passed through the S.C. House.

“You need to be able to go across the board – deal with Republicans and Democrats – to get things done,” Frazier told La Socialista – a.k.a. The (Columbia) State newspaper – when asked about the expense.

Blah, blah, blah, blah …

We think Frazier meant to say “go across the aisle,” but whatever …

We’re glad Frazier stepped in this particular “road apple,” though, because as much as status quo politicians of his ilk have relied on “bring home the bacon” tactics like this in the past to get themselves elected (and reelected), we’ve got a hunch that script may be flipping.

In fact, in this electoral climate, we’re guessing that a candidate who has led the fight against taxpayer-funded lobbying at the state level stands a much better chance of winning an election than some local joker with his hand out …

UPDATE – For those of you interested in more pictures of our “red alert” girl – a.k.a. Gemma Atkinson – enjoy …