Lobbyists Against Amendment 49? Former Sen. Hank Brown Explains Why

I ran across this satire site someone created, called Lobbyists against Amendment 49. But seriously, why would many of Colorado’s political lobbying groups be against Amendment 49, the Ethical Standards initiative? Likely because they have grown quite accustomed to the special privilege of the government serving as their banker, collection agent, and bookkeeper for free. That’s a gig I wouldn’t want to end either.

Unfortunately, I think the people of Colorado may be of a different opinion. While appearing recently on 850 KOA’s Mike Rosen Show, former U.S. Senator Hank Brown explained the problem pretty concisely:

Here’s the transcript:

Taxpayers have to pay for the cost of transferring the money, collecting the money, accounting for the money, and reporting it. So they [lobbying groups] love to have government pick up their costs for it, and I think the biggest factor here is they know that if it’s done through the payroll system people have a much more difficult time being able to reclaim their money, if they don’t want to pay.

Lobbyists against 49: not exactly a good way to build a broad coalition. I’ll stick with good government, thank you very much.