How much money can you afford to spend on treating your legislator and other state officials, to take them to dinner or send them on an all-expense paid vacation? If you're like most Texas citizens, the answer is zero. In this economy you're probably just trying to hang on to your job so you can feed, clothe and shelter your family.
But corporations don't have that problem, and their lobbyists are spending millions on those same Texas officials. According to the Houston Chronicle, that spending by lobbyists is more than $12.8 million in the last four years. That's a ton of money for a state whose legislature only meets for 140 days every other year.
According to the Chronicle, over $3.5 million was spent directly on Texas legislators, and another $3.8 million on members of their staffs. Now Texas only has 150 members of the Texas House and 32 members of the Texas Senate -- that's just 182 total legislators. Doing a little math, that's over $19,230 per legislator (not counting what was spent on their staff).
Even worse, most of this money spent on our state officials doesn't even have to be reported. That's because back in 2003, the Republican legislature nearly doubled the amount that could be spent without the lobbyist (or the legislator) having to report it.
In essence, the lobbyists are buying access to our state officials -- access that the private citizen does not have and can not get. Is it any wonder that new laws and regulations always seem to favor the corporations rather than the common man?
We need some new laws regulating lobbyists. Ideally, lobbyists should not be able to buy anything for or give anything to any state official. At the very least, they should be forced to report everything (even down to a $1.00 double cheeseburger at McDonalds).
Quite simply, the people of Texas have a right to know who is buying access to our state officials, and for how much.
that's what happens when you live in a red state.
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