Taxpayer-Funded Lobbyists

Did you know your property tax dollars are used to lobby legislators?

Not only this, but you may never know exactly what taxpayer-funded lobbyists are promoting. Holding local elected officials accountable for the efforts of their lobbyist is difficult, particularly when they work with legislators behind the scenes.

Many cities, counties, and school districts hire lobbyists. Other lobbyists are hired through associations and organizations like the Iowa League of Cities. Dues for, and training through, these organizations are paid for with your property tax dollars. While many may agree that property tax dollars should not be utilized for lobbying activities, at minimum, lobbying efforts made by local governments on behalf of property taxpayers ought to be fully transparent.

Unfortunately, many local governments have found a loophole to avoid transparency. Lobbyists who are contracted by cities and counties are not subject to open records laws. If a city or county hires an employee to lobby, that employee would be subject to open records laws, but a contract employee is not. Further, some of the associations funded by tax dollars, like the Iowa League of Cities and the Iowa State Association of Counties, are not subject to open records laws. If your property tax dollars are paying for lobbying activities, you deserve to know exactly how your money is being used.

Lobbyists must declare official positions, and those are public record; however, much more happens behind the scenes than an official position indicates. There are talks to draft legislation that sometimes go nowhere. There are also internal discussions to decide what lobbyists support or oppose. Citizens deserve to know what local elected officials are using their money to advocate for or against because sometimes, the positions taken by lobbyists representing local governments or associations of local governments take stances that are not in the best interest of the taxpayers. Some of the most prominent opponents to 2019’s property tax transparency bill, which required an affirmative vote of local elected officials to increase budgets year over year by more than two percent, were lobbyists acting on behalf of local governments and associations of local governments.

If taxpayer-funded lobbying continues, contract lobbyists paid with taxpayer dollars and associations of local governments hiring lobbyists should be subject to the same open records laws as public employees. The people deserve the opportunity to learn how their money is spent and determine if that use is genuinely in their best interest. Citizens must have transparency to be able to hold their local governments accountable.