Missouri tries to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying

In Missouri, there’s a bill that would end the practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying. Representative Shane Schoeller’s bill would prohibit any entity that accepts tax dollars from using that money to influence the passage or defeat of legislation.

Schoeller, R-Willard, filed the legislation last year in response to the Missouri Department of Transportation sending 20 employees to the Capitol pressure legislators to pass a primary seat belt law on taxpayer time. Legislators ultimately did not support the bill, partially because the agency’s tactics annoyed them.

The bill would not outright ban recipients of tax dollars from hiring lobbyists, but the lobbyists would be forbidden from influencing legislators to vote a certain way on a bill. “You can monitor, you can educate, but you can’t advocate,” said Schoeller. The legislation would work by penalizing any registered lobbyist who accepted tax dollars to advocate a position by barring them from lobbying for up to two years, and by fining governments from $1,000 to $5,000 for using tax dollars to pay for a lobbyist.

Lobbyist Randy Scherr said it would be virtually impossible to allow lobbyists to educate a lawmaker on an issue while forbidding them from advocating a position, noting that the distinction between “education” and “advocacy” is nonexistent. It isn’t just the lobbyists that don’t think the bill will work. Representative David Day, R-Dixon.”I support the concept, I really do. But I don’t think it will change much.”

The doubts are consistent with the broad nature of lobbying. It is difficult and next to impossible to remove influence from the legislative process, since it can take many forms. Schoeller said he doubts his bill will be included in the final product. While the cause of ending the practice does seem lofty, the proposed bill has brought taxpayer-funded lobbying to the the forefront. A start would be increased transparency in the process. For example, out of the 54 Missouri counties with websites, none of them have lobbying information on their websites. If these counties were to post their lobbying information online, such as contracts with lobbyists, membership in taxpayer-funded lobbying associations, and check registers for payments to these, there wouldn’t even need to be legislation protecting taxpayers from overzealous governments: taxpayers could look out after themselves.