Monday, September 29, 2008

Edinburg officials can't count on their legislators

The City and Edinburg Economic Development Council don’t trust their legislators. That’s right, Sen. Juan Hinojosa and Rep. Aaron Pena have gotten a vote of “no confidence” by local officials and leaders. Edinburg leaders, in “preparing for legislative session” have hired a lobbyist who they credit with past legislative victories. That’s right – they don’t praise their legislative representatives, but the lobbyist for “establishing a known presence at the State Capitol in Austin,” according to City Manager J.J. Rodriquez. So much for Sen. Hinojosa and Rep. Pena...

Edinburg taxpayers, you are paying for a lobbyist who may very well lobby against taxpayer interests. Most city and county lobbyists oppose taxpayer protections. It is up to taxpayers to review the legislative agenda for the City and chamber of commerce. Make sure the legislative priorities are YOUR TAXPAYER priorities to keep more of your hard-earned money. After all, tax dollars are being used to pay your lobbyist.

Read about the lobbyist hire here:
http://www.edinburgpolitics.com/2008/09/14/edinburg-prepares-for-legislative-session-eedc-city-government-to-split-lobbyists-60000-annual-fee/

3 comments:

Shaine Mata said...

You are citing a political blog that trashes everybody in the community. They have a particular fetish for Peña. There are other cities nearby that also hire lobbyists or make the annual trip to Austin to lobby their representatives.

Shaine Mata said...

My apologies. I confused Edinburg Politics with Edinburg News. Edinburg Politics does not engage in political attacks.

I do, however, stand by my assertion that other cities engage lobbyists during the legislative session.

MJSamuelson said...

Shaine:

You're right about other cities engaging lobbyists during the legislative session. That's exactly the problem! Cities (or counties, school districts, etc) should not engage in the practice of using taxpayer dollars to lobby other government entities.