Sometimes it takes money to make money.
That’s the rationale behind the town board’s June 10 decision to renew a $72,000 contract with The Ferguson Group, LLC, a Washington, DC-based lobbyist group.
A couple folks have posted blog comments and sent e-mails, asking me to look into the town’s hiring of the lobbyist group. So I did. And here’s what I found:
The Ferguson Group works with the town’s “congressional delegation” in Washington DC and credits itself with securing a total of $1.89 million in “appropriations” for different town projects -- including $960,000 toward the water treatment plant -- and $4 million in “authorizations" for water and wastewater infrastructure.
The lobbyist group is charged with monitoring legislative issues of importance to Mooresville and informing the town of issues “on which Mooresville can advocate its position.” Additionally, the group monitors “competitive grants that may be of interest to the town” and says it stands prepared to “garner congressional support for any grant applications” that the town submits.
The Ferguson Group, founded in 1982, “lobbies Congress and the federal agencies on behalf of public and private interests across the country,” according the group’s website (http://www.fergusongroup.us/), and is "the largest federal representative of local governments in Washington, DC," representing “more irrigation districts, water districts, and local water agencies than any other Washington firm.”
Also according to the website, The Ferguson Group is bi-partisan, and its staff members “earned their reputation serving on the front lines as staff to key Members of Congress. Our expertise in the substance, process, and culture of Capitol Hill is the foundation of our consistently successful advocacy efforts,” the website adds.
The renewed contract with the Town of Mooresville stayed at the same cost ($72,000, or $6,000/month) as last year's contract. The town's renewing of the contract means that The Ferguson Group will continue advocating for federal funding for projects included in the town’s fiscal year 2009 “Federal Agenda.”
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7 comments:
Jamie,
Thanks for the answers, but do you think this group can find us a few copies of "Governance for Dummies" for our local government?
This sounds like a good thing. We are getting more out of it than we are putting in.
Remember this however was started by previous boards and not this bunch of dummies that we have now that given their choice its a wonder they didn't put the money in something else like buying something that was going bankrupt.
If every Town in America is hiring a lobbist then the end result is probably that noone gets any more funds than if none of the Towns hired a lobbist. Thus, all we have done is created an 'industry' made up primarily of ex elected officials and bureaucrats. An industry who's sole intent is to line the pockets of these guys at taxpayers expense. It just seems basically wrong to me that government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' causes such a situation. I guess we can all shrug our shoulders and say 'well, it ain't a perfect world' and go on swallowing that bad taste in our mouth that keeps coming up when we hear stuff like this. Or we can voice our dissatisfaction. After all it does say 'by the people'.
Well sounds like money well spent. Good return. Did they just hire them or renew their services?
Hey there! The town renewed the contract, at the same cost as last year ($72,000).
Jaime,
If past action was justification for future actions, we'd all still be living in caves.
June 18, 2008 10:42 AM hit the nail on the head. This is yet another example of how government is confused about its role. Government is a necessary evil, not a proactive force of good. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground – Thomas Jefferson. The best government is the smallest government, a government that protects citizens from foreign enemies, keeps the peace domestically, enforces contracts, and maintains basic infrastructure.
Politicians seem to have tricked people into the belief that the government’s role is to meet the needs of the people and that somehow the government can compete with the efficiency of the free market. This notion has fed the belief that federal and state money is free money that all the towns, businesses, and individuals need to compete for.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. When towns and representatives “win” money for their constituents, they are only feeding the gargantuan federal debt, which currently sits at $9.5 trillion. That is another issue altogether, but I will say that the federal debt and continuing national budget deficits have the potential to be more devastating to our economy that housing bubbles, terrorist attacks, or high gas prices.
Let’s simplify the issue. We pay taxes, the money goes to Washington, then we pay $72,000 a year to hire a firm to beg on our behalf. Let’s not even consider the realized dead weight loss of rent seeking and the negative impact of geographical income redistribution (which given our tax base we are probably on the losing side of). Can anyone think of a way we can cut a few steps out of this equation?
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