Texas Watchdog nails Fred Hill's revolving door

NEWS RELEASE
February 19, 2009


The online news site Texas Watchdog spotlights Richardson Republican Fred Hill, who for years was chairman of the House Local Government Ways and Means Committee.

Hill is the latest lawmaker to go through Capitol Hill's revolving door and become a lobbyist. Hill now represents a handful of North Texas city and town governments in Austin, work for which he could be paid almost $700,000.

Check out the story on www.texaswatchdog.org or follow this link: http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2009/02/former-state-rep-fred-hill-now-lobbying-on-behalf-of-cities-counties/

Critics of the revolving door say voters and taxpayers are unable to tell when lawmakers stop thinking like lawmakers and start thinking like someone on the hunt for a job. And in Hill's case – like many others who have waltzed through the revolving door – he went hunting for work from entities that had much to gain or lose from the actions on his committee: local governments.

Go to Texas Watchdog to get the documents that indicate Hill began thinking about a lobbying job in the months before he left the legislature. He registered his lobbying firm – a limited liability corporation called Solutions for Local Control – with the Secretary of State's office on Nov. 20, records show.

In most cases, lawmakers don't start lobbying duties until their replacement is sworn in. This year, that would have been Jan. 13. But by Jan. 3, the former chairman of the House Local Government Ways and Means Committee was asking for business from local governments, according to documents that can be seen exclusively at Texas Watchdog.

For more information, contact:
Texas Watchdog Editor Trent Seibert at 713-980-9776 or 615-289-9549 or at trent@texaswatchdog.org