By Rep. Jason Murphey
When asked to point out what I believe to be the most wasteful and inappropriate form of government spending, I can answer without hesitation. Without a doubt, it is the extremely inappropriate tendency of government agencies to hire private lobbying firms.
It’s a practice known as “taxpayer-funded lobbying,” or government paying to lobby government on behalf of government.
Imagine the plight of the CEO whose Board of Directors has made the shocking discovery that a division of the company has been paying outside agents to lobby another division of the same company and against the best interests of the customers of the company.
How could the CEO ever defend this practice? Of course this would never happen.
Unlike the business world, it has become acceptable for state government to silo itself off into inefficient, separate divisions that burn through taxpayer money while jockeying against one another.
The practice should be halted at once and the agencies that receive appropriations and that have hired lobbyists should receive an immediate and corresponding decrease in appropriations.
Those agencies that do not receive appropriations, but still hire lobbyists, should be required to either lower their fees or submit the differential back to the state’s general fund.
Like me, you likely find this practice to be completely indefensible. You are probably also not happy that the Legislature is attempting to increase your taxes while the government is still significantly subsidizing the private lobbying industry with its policy of taxpayer-funded lobbying.
You should know that I have on multiple occasions sponsored legislation to end this practice.
The proposal has always been rejected by the Legislature and this I know: as long as Oklahoma lawmakers can get away with raising taxes, they will likely continue to waste taxpayer funds on inappropriate expenditures such as subsidies to the private lobbying industry.
Absent legislative action, Oklahoma’s governor should follow the example of the governor of Arizona who recently issued an executive order to prevent many of their state government entities from hiring lobbyists.
It’s absolutely unconscionable to me that many of Oklahoma’s politicians are attempting to enact a 35% increase in your state gas tax while spending what appears to be an ever-increasing amount on private sector lobbyists.
You should never believe that state government needs more of your money. If they still have enough to spend on subsidizing private lobbying firms, they do not need more from you!
Thank you, again, Rep. Murphey for pointing out the absurdity that continues to happen at the Capitol. This should be a no-brainer for the legislature to stop the antics of government agencies hiring lobbyists to lobby the government for more money. My question is how will we ever get things under control unless we stop doing things the same way as they’ve always been done (that’s called insanity).
Rep. Murphey is spot-on again. And it SHOULD be a no-brainer. Sadly, it seems to be a head-scratcher. I don’t mind if an agency head appears before the legislature to say what wonderful things the agency does and why it needs funding, but to use our money to hire outside pros to do that is reprehensible.
Isnt this part of the retirement program of former Okla. Legislators so they can keep feeding at the state capitol? Governments employing these Lobyists so they have somewhere to go when out of offiice.