Tiny Alaska towns spend big on lobbying federal government

Eighteen months ago, the tiny town of Galena faced its demise. The municipal government couldn't make payroll. Rising energy prices and deteriorating facilities -- not to mention winter temperatures dipping below minus 50 degrees -- threatened its 470 residents.
Then, an unlikely hero emerged: a lobbyist.
Galena, about 200 miles west of Fairbanks on the Yukon River, received millions of dollars in federal and state funds to save the city from financial ruin and imminent state government stewardship. Kent Dawson, a lobbyist in Alaska, and John Roots, a lobbyist based in Washington, D.C., were crucial in securing the money.
"Without the lobbying, the city would have been unincorporated," City Manager Tom Corrigan said. "Without (Dawson) coming up with solutions, we would have been belly up, quite honestly."
Galena spent $60,000 on federal lobbying in 2010, about $127.66 per capita -- the highest rate of any state, county or municipal government in the United States, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of federal lobbying and U.S. Census data. In 2009, Galena spent $40,000. The city's budget is about $5 million, according to a municipal document from 2007.
For doling out about 1 percent of its budget on lobbying, Galena reaped around $1.5 million in capital projects grants "to repair antiquated utilities" left after the Air Force closed a forward base for fighter jets, Corrigan said.
This means that for every dollar spent on federal lobbying efforts in 2010, Galena scored $25 in return.
In contrast, the Los Angeles city government spent $60,000 on federal lobbying in 2010, about 1.5 cents for each of its nearly 3.8 million residents. The city's annual budget is about $6.7 billion, according to its most recent report.
In 2010, state, territory, county, parish, borough, city, town and village governments spent more than $77.4 million lobbying the federal government, down from a record high of $83 million in 2009, according to the center's research.
Much of the lobbying in 2009 focused on the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package. Stimulus-related lobbying declined throughout 2010, while issues as diverse as the cities themselves, ranging from appropriation bills to tobacco regulations, were also catalysts for lobbying efforts.
Local governments spent $27.7 million on lobbying in 1998, a total that has almost tripled in 12 years.
Many lobbyists employed by local and state governments have taken a spin through the revolving door between public service and the private sector. In the case of Galena, Roots previously worked as an aide for the late Sen. Ted Stevens, and Dawson was once chief of staff for Alaska's governor.
According to the Center's research, 656 lobbyists employed in 2010 by local governments have passed through the revolving door, about 62 percent of all lobbyists employed by local governments.
In 2010, that included 38 former members of Congress.
For example, ex-Rep. Karen Thurman, D-Fla., lobbied for Miami-Dade County, Fla., and ex-Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., lobbied on behalf of Fort Smith, Ark. Meanwhile, former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., lobbied for Madison County, N.Y.
But some fiscal watchdogs frown on governments spending local tax dollars to lobby Washington for federal tax dollars.
"One of the biggest secrets is that the biggest beggars are the representatives of local governments," said Leslie Paige, vice president of communications for Citizens Against Government Waste.
Does the amount of money spent on lobbying correlate with population? The answer is a resounding "no."

'NECESSARY EVIL?"
Sparsely populated areas of the country spend the most per capita on lobbying, according to Center research. As such, many of the top per capita spenders on federal lobbying are in Alaska.
All of the local leaders with whom OpenSecrets Blog spoke described their lobbying expenditures as necessary.
"A necessary evil," said Joe Bereskin, mayor of Akutan.
Akutan, in the Aleutian Islands, spent $100,000 on lobbying in 2010, up from $40,000 in 2005. That 2010 total amounts to $97.37 for each of the community's 1,027 residents.
For some lobbyists, their work brings personal honors and awards, as well as money. Dawson received a plaque from Galena for his efforts. The plaque is now displayed in Dawson's office kitchen.
"There's not one councilman or woman who would not give kudos (to Dawson)," Corrigan, the town's manager, said.
"It was very satisfying," Dawson said. "They had severe financial difficulty, and I had to come up with a way to resolve it, and the Legislature approved it."
"A lot of these small towns are in large legislative districts, and it's difficult for them to compete, and that's why they hired me."
Henry Mack, mayor of King Cove, also praised his town's lobbying efforts. He dismissed any suggestion that federal lobbying is a necessary evil. It's just necessary, he said.
"We wouldn't have the infrastructure or the quality of life if we weren't there seeking help from our government, and our lobbyists help us do that," Mack said.
King Cove, also in the Aleutian Islands, with a population of 938, spent $60,000 -- $63.97 per resident -- on lobbying in 2010.
"We would never have (harbors, roads or airports) if we weren't able to lobby our congressmen in Washington, D.C., and Juneau," Mack said.
Sixty or seventy thousand dollars spent to bring in $20 million -- "It's a very, very small price for what we get in return," Corrigan said.
Carl Shepro, a University of Alaska Anchorage political science professor, attributed the prolific spending on federal lobbying to the state government's unwillingness to provide resources for isolated communities.
There is political and ideological opposition in the Legislature to aiding small communities, he said, so many small Alaska governments are all but forced to lobby the federal government for money, Shepro said.
"You hear a lot of comments in the Legislature ... that people in those communities should just pack up and leave and move to Anchorage," Shepro said.
The governor's office did not return calls and messages seeking comment.

MULTIPLE DISASTERS
King Cove and Galena may have successfully curried favor with the federal government. But other local governments haven't always been pleased with the return on their investments.
Plaquemines Parish in southeastern Louisiana spent $352,000, or $15.28 for each of its 23,042 residents, on federal lobbying in 2010. One of its lobbyists was ex-Rep. Robert Livingston, R-La., who served in Congress for 10 terms before retiring in 1999.
In recent years, the small parish, as counties are called in Louisiana, has suffered through two major disasters: Hurricane Katrina, which battered its land, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which fouled its coastal waters.
But federal lobbying has not been very helpful in addressing Plaquemines' needs, Plaquemines Parish Council Member Percy Griffin said.
"I'm not saying lobbyists are not doing a good job. They are not doing an effective job," he said. "I don't see any strong results."
He said the parish will likely have to increase its lobbying efforts in the future because the "federal government sometimes (is) dragging its legs."

LIVE BY PORK, DIE BY PORK
Taxpayers ultimately foot the cost when local governments lobby the federal government.
"They've created a very large community of lobbyists," Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste said.
Mattie Corrao, government affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, said the tens of millions of dollars spent on lobbying by governments is "a commentary on the envy of the local lawmakers who believe they are not getting their fair share."
"It means the taxpayer is going to be hit twice," Corrao said. "That's extraordinarily problematic."
"We're pretty unhappy about it," said Vincent Wilhelm of Jacksonville, Fla., president of Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County. "(The local government is) using taxpayer money to lobby against the interest of taxpayers."
Despite such opposition, it appears unlikely that local government lobbying will disappear soon.
"We have a responsibility to every taxpayer every citizen," Corrigan, the city manager of Galena, said. "We're amazed that people would ever question such a very small amount for these results."

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OpenSecrets.org is the website of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization in Washington, D.C., that researches and reports on the effects of money in politics. Center researchers Matthias Jaime and Sarah Bryner contributed to this report.