Opinion - State’s biggest lobbyist

There is something perverse about it.

The biggest lobby group in Washington state is government itself. Nearly every segment of state government and state funded operations has a lobbying effort to argue and advocate for their own specific programs and needs.

And, who do these government paid lobbyists lobby? They lobby themselves—the state of Washington.

According to recent estimates, millions in tax generated money is spent by government to lobby for more tax generated money.

In fact, last year, state-paid lobbyists spent the most money of any lobbying group, outspending the much maligned private lobbyists.

Schools have lobbyists. County governments have lobbyists. State employees have lobbyists. There is barely a group supported by state tax money that does not have its own lobbying effort to get more state tax money.

This does not even include the lobbying efforts by unions and associations representing public entities and employees which also collect tax generated money from their members for their efforts.

In this budget crisis, cutting all state-paid lobbyists, their staffs and indirect expenses would save millions of dollars.

The savings would not come to the $5 billion the state is trying to find to make up its projected deficit, but it is a savings that would reduce redundancies and duplications.

Isn’t the allocation of state funds the job of elected legislators?

Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Yet, the pieces would automatically be bigger if so many were not being paid out of the very money over which they are fighting.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher