Using your money to lobby for more of your money is immoral!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

BAN TAX PAYER FUNDED LOBBYING!

by Steve Fair

     A lobbyist is defined as a person who takes part in an organized attempt to influence legislators.   Most lobbyists represent trade and industry groups or associations. They monitor legislation that could impact their clients.  Lobbyists often get a bad rap, but in reality private sector lobbyists are just representing groups of people.  They have a vested interest in making sure legislators are educated on their client’s interests. 

      Several years ago, I wrote a column regarding lobbying titled, “There is no Such Thing as a Free Lunch.”  It pointed out the fundamental economic principle that someone is always paying(there is no free) and the payor usually expects a return on their investment.  When a lobbyist pays for the cheeseburger a legislator eats, it has strings attached.  So long as a legislator understands that simple principle, then fine.           

     After I wrote the column, a prominent lobbyist in OKC responded in a Letter to the Editor with outrage, writing that he never expected a return on his investment and every lunch, dinner, ticket, or trinket he gave a legislator had absolutely no strings attached.  I responded that was likely not what he told a potential client when he made his pitch to present them before the legislature. 

     A popular vocation after leaving a legislative body- both at the federal and state level- is lobbying.  It makes sense.  Former lawmakers understand the process.  They have friends in the chamber and usually have immediate access to them.  The Oklahoma constitution has a provision stating a former lawmaker can’t go to work in a state agency or lobby until they have been out of office for two years(not that it is enforced). 

     In February, the State Ethics Commission voted unanimously to enforce a two year ban and to add state agency heads to the prohibition.  Last week, the Oklahoma legislature voted overwhelmingly to reject the Ethics Commission’s recommendations.  There is bad blood between the Commission and the legislature, but that is for another column.  Three observations about lobbying:

      First, the Ethics Commission did overstep their authority.  They were established to enforce the rules, not establish them.  While the idea of expanding the ban to include agency bureaucrats makes sense, that reform should be done by the legislature, not by the Commission.

     Second, far too many elected officials never return to the real private sector.  Once they get a taste of the political industry, most elected officials are hooked and finding a real job and returning to the real private sector fades into the past.  If the two year ban were enforced, it might force some of the politicos to get a real job. 

     Third, real reform would be banning taxpayer funded lobbying and lobbyists.  When state agencies and other taxpayer funded entities hire lobbyists with my tax dollars to lobby for more of my tax dollars, it’s immoral.  Thomas Jefferson said, "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." It is past time for the state legislature to ban taxpayer funded lobbying.