Author Topic: Tax-Funded Lobbying: Bad Practice, Worse Agenda  (Read 1161 times)

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Offline Sanguine

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Tax-Funded Lobbying: Bad Practice, Worse Agenda
« on: October 26, 2016, 11:46:56 pm »
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One municipality’s recently approved legislative agenda for the upcoming legislative session is so bad it demonstrates precisely why they should be banned from paying lobbyists with taxpayer dollars.

Tax-Funded Lobbying: Bad Practice, Worse Agenda

October 26, 2016 by Greg Harrison

As if the mere concept of municipalities using taxpayer funds to lobby the state legislature wasn’t abhorrently anti-taxpayer enough, one look at a municipality’s recently-approved legislative agenda for the upcoming legislative session makes a strong case for unilaterally abolishing the practice.

At last Thursday’s meeting, the Austin City Council approved their legislative agenda for the upcoming 85th Legislative Session. Surprising no one, the agenda is a laundry list of anti-taxpayer and grow-government reforms designed to either hold onto or grow the municipalities taxing and regulatory authority.

Noteworthy items include:

    Opposing efforts to limit the city’s ability to unconstitutionally restrict the rights of its citizens through regulatory authority, specifically:
        banning plastic bags, regulating ridesharing companies, banning short-term rentals, and nanny-state health regulations such as smoking bans;
    Opposing any measures (such as revenue caps) that might force the city to approach spending issues responsibly, or limit their ability to take more money from residents;
    .....
Unintentionally, the City of Austin has made a compelling case to end the practice altogether.

More:  http://empowertexans.com/central-texas/tax-funded-lobbying-bad-practice-worse-agenda/