Taxpayer funds are redistributed to other levels of government and to private organizations that use the funds to lobby for more, and more.
The Pacific Research Institute just completed a 92-page study of such "State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers."
The study delved into lobbying disclosure laws in all the states, finding that on average the states scored a “D”, 59.3%, on disclosure.
Little wonder. Using the example of California, as the authors summarized in an op-ed:
When it comes to government-to-government lobbying, we’re not talking about small amounts of money, as California confirms. Direct government-to-government lobbying constituted the single largest category of state-level lobbying. Specifically, it represented $92.6 million of the $552.6 million California spent on lobbying, or 16.8 percent.
If that amount is expanded to include other taxpayer-funded organizations that are not directly government, the number increases to almost one-in-four-dollars of lobbying. Perhaps most telling, the level of taxpayer-funded lobbying at the state level, using California as a case study, is two-and-a-half times the magnitude of similar lobbying at the federal level.
While governors lobby the federal government, taxpayers in 50 states are staring down the barrel of April 15. Most do not intend their hard-earned money to fund lobbying activities on the part of government. All citizens have a right to expect that government-to-government lobbying will be subject to the same level of scrutiny and reporting as lobbying by the private sector. All states should make improvements in disclosure, accessibility and equal treatment.
The study points out, “A shocking 44 states provide specific exemptions in their lobbying laws for public agencies and public officials.”
Why?
The study continues:
For example, a bureaucrat’s prestige, power, and resources are ultimately a function of the importance of their area, the resources allocated to their department or agency, and the visibility of their work. Bennett and DiLorenzo argue that bureaucrats can and do indirectly create pressure on government to increase the resources and priority of their own departments by funding private organizations. The funding of these organizations creates a self-reinforcing dynamic: the outside group receives government money in part used to lobby the government for more programs and services in the area the funding department is responsible for. This creates pressure for the government (generally) to allocate greater funds to the department, which then in part allows for even greater funding of outside groups to continue lobbying.
Bennett and DiLorenzo describe a similar situation for politicians. Funding to outside groups by the government creates naturally strong constituencies for members of Congress. These outside groups can provide volunteers, campaign resources, and so-called independent voices of support for politicians during re-election campaigns.
A similar self-serving dynamic operates at the federal level:
…it creates a circular and self-promoting cycle between government officials and so-called independent charities and non-profits that act to promote government policies while receiving federal aid.
As seen in California, and across the nation, the biggest lobbiers of government are government itself and the private organizations it funds that use taxpayer funds to lobby for more, and more.
Taxpayers are expected by these self-serving layers of increasing government and its hangers-on to pay more, and more, and taxpayers are expected to pay for expanding that expectation.
P.S.: A reader asked me to elaborate why this study is so important. There’s the direct consequence of government feeding its own enlargement with taxpayer funds, which increases pressures to increase taxes. Further, the states are facing hundreds of billions of dollars of current budget deficits. Last year, the federal “stimulus” bailed out the states, and now the Democrats in Congress want to send the states billions more to continue to delay the states tightening their spending. That so-called stimulus has mostly gone to continue the growing employment of government workers, while private sector employment drops. States for the most part have to balance their budgets. Many have done that through accounting tricks. Most of those have exhausted their repertoire of tricks, and their taxpayers’ patience, and are making some cuts. As politicians oft’ do, they are trying to scare the public into accepting increased taxes by threatening to cut or trim essential or liked public services. Public resistance is forcing some states to face up to the bloat in their own payrolls and health and pension benefits largesse. For a quick reference, see this post about the public sector’s employment during the current economy, this article about the interplay of the deficits being run at federal and state levels and the deficits’ impact on the economy, and this article about the Congressional Democrats’ scurrying to send more taxpayer welfare to the states to buffer them from facing budget reality while sinking the federal budget even deeper in debt.
Tracked: Jun 19, 18:35