By Matt Tully in the Indianapolis Star:
Here’s a figure that will likely frustrate and annoy you: $2.3 million.
That’s how much tax money various units of Indianapolis government, from school districts to the mayor’s office, have spent over the past five years lobbying another unit of government, the state legislature. That’s an average of about $460,000 a year that isn’t being spent on parks or police or sidewalks but rather on pricey Downtown lobbyists.
Even in these brutal economic times for city and county government, local politicians have spent heavily to hire lobbyists to sway their fellow politicians over at the Statehouse. In many cases, not surprisingly, the local politicians have hired lobbyists with whom they have close personal or political ties.
It’s all in reports filed with the state’s Lobby Registration Commission, and it’s another reminder of why so many taxpayers look at government and scratch their heads.
Take Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.
In the five years since Ballard became the city’s top boss, his office has paid the powerhouse firm of Barnes & Thornburg roughly $293,000 to lobby the Statehouse. Even this year, when Ballard’s fellow Republicans enjoyed absolute control of the Statehouse, the city felt the need to pay the firm $42,500 to do its bidding. The city’s main lobbyist is Joe Loftus, a Barnes & Thornburg partner who is also one of Ballard’s earliest and most loyal campaign supporters.
That tale might be frustrating. But it’s not unusual.
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See the full opinion here:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130719/NEWS08/307190041/Matthew-Tully-Services-slashed-local-governments-still-spend-millions-lobby-Statehouse
