http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2011/05/an-all-expenses-paid-trip-to-pick-up-next-years-legislation.htmlAn all-expenses-paid trip to pick up next year's legislation
by David Safier
It's just this easy. Arizona legislators can travel to New Orleans from August 3-6 on ALEC's dime. ALEC is the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. There they'll learn what they should care about, and they'll be handed prewritten legislation with blanks they can fill in to turn it into an Arizona-specific bill. Bingo! Next year's legislative agenda. No muss, no fuss, no bother.
House Majority whip Debbie Lesko sent an email (you can read it after the jump) to all legislators of both parties. ALEC, after all, bills itself as nonpartisan, and you can't give something away for free unless you offer it to everyone. ALEC members get up to $1,900 worth of reimbursement for their travel expenses. Just fill out the form when you return. And membership is only $100 for two years. Such a deal!
Who's a member? A total of 52 Republicans, though Allen, Biggs, Melvin, Pearce, Pierce and Weiers better renew quick, because their memberships expired last December. You can see the complete list here.
If you think of that deal multiplied by Republicans from 50 states, you get the idea there's big money behind ALEC. And indeed there is. Koch brothers money. Big oil money. Big Pharma money. Private prison money. Anyone with a few million dollars and a legislative agenda can get in on the deal.
-snip-
The third paragraph of Lesko's letter is the one that informs all the state legislators that if they're ALEC members, their "airfare, hotel, ALEC registration, baggage, travel to/from the airport to the hotel, and airport parking" will be reimbursed through an ALEC "scholarship" up to $1900.
The fourth paragraph, following the $1900 carrot, tells legislators that their membership costs only $100 for two years.
As Safier wrote:
Such a deal!Of course, the corporations are picking up the tab, so they can co-write legislation and get their puppet legislators to introduce it.
And ALEC makes all of this so very convenient...and all in the guise of an "educational charity."
For more on this organization and the harm it does, see the long compilation topic on the
American Legislative Exchange Council.
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