By Associated Press
Washington, DC – Lobbying in Washington for Alabama's towns, counties and local agencies is a growth industry. An Associated Press survey has found that several dozen cities, counties, airport authorities and other public agencies in Alabama have dramatically increased their lobbying spending in recent years. The survey found that, from 2000 to 2005, such spending has nearly quadrupled from about 739-thousand dollars to nearly three (m) million. That's based on lobbying disclosures required by federal law. About two dozen public agencies, many of them small cities, have signed up new lobbyists in the last year alone.
Three firms with strong political ties in state government and Washington have gotten the lion's share of the work. They are: Cauthen, Forbes & Williams; Bradley, Arant, Rose & White; and The Bloom Group. On the up side, lobbyists help identify projects for funding in a complex array of federal spending mechanisms and push for them in the competitive Capitol Hill environment. That gives even small towns leverage in the fight for federal dollars. But critics say such lobbying for local governments creates the appearance of a pay-to-play federal funding system. They say it diverts money from priorities and merit-based grants.