Concern Tolls

The Austin political industry is currently on a mission to gaslight gullible conservatives into supporting taxpayer funded lobbying. For years, the establishment has been making arguments that we should support local tyranny masquerading as local control. When a politician starts talking about local control, look extra close to make sure they mean you, because they almost always don't.

The fundamental argument against taxpayer funded lobbying is that local governments should make their case to their local constituents, not directly to the legislature. The Constitution guarantees representation and rights of redress to the people directly. Local cities or counties are granted powers, the citizens thereof are the holders of rights.

Taxpayer funded lobbying is not taxpayer lobbying. It is the government bypassing the citizen to lobby the government. Well meaning local officials may find it inconvenient to rely on the people to organize and lobby their representatives, but our system invests this trust in the people for profound reasons. Replacing the citizen with a government funded middleman is antithetical to the basic philosophy underlying our governmental framework, directly usurping the constituent identity of the citizen.

Local officials should find ways to involve their constituents, not look for ways to bypass them. It might not be easy, but bottom up citizen engagement in governance is a minimum requirement for the long term preservation of liberty.