Zero to 2.2 Million

Yesterday Brad Crone came out with a misleading statement on behalf of the realtors implying that every penny spent on lobbying by groups associated with the Partnership for North Carolina's Tomorrow was public money spent lobbying for a transfer tax. As Ellis Hankins of the North Carolina League of Municipalities explained, only a fraction of that amount was public lobbying dollars and was spent on many other issues as well including tracking of over 600 bills affecting NC local governments. Indeed the Partnership is addressing a wide range of issues and solutions.

Using the new realtor math we should add another $200,000 to the amount spent on lobbying by realtors and their allies to the $100,000 extra the realtors reported Monday. This would bring the running total up to about $860,000 spent lobbying against NC cities and counties. The NC Realtors PAC and 527 accounts add about $1.1 million to the war chest bringing the ammunition total up to $1.9 million. But wait, there's more. The Homebuilders PAC have yet to file 2007 reports but had $260,000 cash on hand Dec '06 and can be expected to add another $100,000 for the first half of 2007. So we're up to over $2.2 million in ammunition. This doesn't count the millions spent by Art Pope to maintain the supporting cast of propagandists and lobbyists from Civitas, John Locke, Americans for Prosperity and, Freedomworks who have all been busy churning out talking points, polls and action alerts opposed to a transfer tax option for local governments.

On June 27th the NC Association of Realtors added a third lobbyist to its stable of in-house lobbyists. Julie Woodson, formerly with the NC Pork Council, became the sixth person currently registered as lobbying on behalf of the NC Realtors, joining the five homebuilders lobbyists to make a soccer team of 11. Local governments have to come to Raleigh to beg the Legislature for permission to provide the services that the public expects them to deliver, services that realtors and homebuilders need to maintain their profitability. That requires lobbying on behalf of taxpayers. Local governments should not have to compete with corporate lobbyists with both hands tied behind their backs.

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Amount spent by me on research, writing and video? $0.00