A bill just introduced in the Kansas Legislature by Representative Joe Patton, a Topeka Republican, would bar taxpayer-funded lobbying for tax increases. The bill is House Bill 2622, captioned “an act concerning the use of public funds for lobbying.”
The bill is very short, the important part being: “No taxpayer funds shall be used for the purpose of employing or contracting for the services of any person whose duty and responsibility includes lobbying for a tax increase.”
Taxpayer-funded lobbying is a problem. In 2008 Alan Cobb — at that time Americans For Prosperity Kansas State Director — wrote an op-ed explaining the harm of taxpayer-funded lobbying. In it he wrote: “It’s proper for private citizens and groups to petition their government, but should one government be ‘petitioning’ another? Do you agree with the things they are lobbying for? Do you even know?”
I’d guess that most citizens don’t know about this, and that many would not agree with what their tax dollars are being used to push on the legislature.
While the bill uses the word “person,” many organizations that are funded by taxpayers lobby for tax increases. An example would be the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), which is funded primarily by dues paid by member school boards. Those payments come from tax dollars. This bill would block those lobbying activities by those organizations, because it is people that do the actual lobbying, and the bill forbids that.
Other articles about this topic include Testimony against taxpayer-funded lobbying, Wichita school bond issue not the only proposed tax increase, and Tax funded lobbyists spending revealed.
Related posts:
- Thanks for picking up the tab, or, taxpayer-funded lobbying hurts
- Testimony against taxpayer-funded lobbying
- Tax funded lobbyists spending revealed
- A Taxpayer Bill of Rights for Kansas, Please
- End Taxpayer-Funded Competition Between the States
- Taxpayer-funded development in Wichita opposed
- Wichita school bond issue not the only proposed tax increase
- Kansas budget can be balanced without tax increases
- Taxpayer Bill Of Rights (TABOR) eviscerated
- Statement opposing Kansas tax funded lawsuits
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The corruption that goes on that we don’t know about it disgusting. I fully support this bill and will contact my House member to support it. Little chance he will do so, though, being a Democrat.
Voting for this bill should be a “no brainer” for our elected officials who were sent to the statehouse to work for us, the taxpayer. But, as we see more than we would like, brains are not a requirement for holding “public” office.
I do hope they will get some sort of epiphany, and vote to protect taxpayers from being sued by our own taxpayer dollars, to get more taxpayer dollars outta us!