Despite budget crunch, Hillsborough still pays millions to junket-taking chambers of commerce
July 27, 2009 at 2:33 pm by George Niemann
Our FLA senator, Mel Martinez, center, chums it up at with Tampa Chamber visitors recently.
By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Since we’ve got such a budget crunch looming that we have to close public facilities and lay off Hillsborough County workers, I wonder if Hillsborough’s economic development “donations” to the many chambers of commerce ended up paying for the Tampa Chamber’s trip to Washington, D.C.? And if so, how much did it cost to send this delegation to the capital to discuss legislative business impacts on our dime?
The picture above was distributed by Sen. Mel Marinez in his e-mail newsletter. The caption in the newsletter says, “Pictured Above: Senator Martinez meets with members of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce in Washington to discuss issues pending in Congress and the potential impacts on the Tampa business community”.
We are spending a fortune on funding the chambers in our area. We’re calling it economic development. The tab for various chambers and other economic groups/activities in 2010 is a whopping $10.9 million, according to a figure buried deep inside County Administrator Pat Bean’s proposed budget. (The Tampa Chamber is slated to get its annual $361,000 allotment against in 2010 and 2011 (its Committee of 100 gets another $89,000 to lure biotech companies here), while the Brandon Chamber is seeing its haul doubled, from $15,000 last year to $30,000 in each of the next two years.)
I checked with the Tampa Chamber to see who paid for the Washington boondoggle. Most of that trip was paid for by “sponsors” (generous business members with money to burn), although the specific names of the sponsors weren’t shared with me. Some of the cost was paid for out of the chamber’s budget and some picked up by those doing the traveling. I was assured by a staff member that they don’t mix Hillsborough’s “donated” money with boondoggle money. And they don’t like the term “donated,” either. They prefer to call it an investment in “economic development.” That has a more sophisticated ring to it, and doesn’t connote the idea that it’s costing us anything. This was the first time they went out of state to do lobbying. Apparently they must have had a good time because I was told that they are planning to do out-of-state lobbying twice a year from here on in.
While our “donations” cannot be tied directly to in-state or out-of-state lobbying efforts, it does raise questions about how much funding our local government should be providing during these hard economic times. If the chambers have enough ready cash to take lobbying trips to Tallahassee and beyond, maybe they should be funding economic development locally, at no cost to tax payers.
If we let Bean have her way, we’ll have to close our parks and cut back on service to our families so that we can keep funding the chambers at the level to which they’ve become accustomed. In looking at her proposed budget, it’s obvious that she will never seriously cut this type of funding. The BOCC better think long and hard about these “donations”, going forward. Can we afford to continue giving such large contributions to organizations that, operationally, don’t seem to be feeling any crunch in this downturned economy? If they’re not feeling the pain, then maybe they don’t need the gain (of our heavy funding)?
After thinking outside the box for about 20 seconds, I’ve got a possible solution that will allow the chambers to continue taking their boondoggles while, at the same time, helping our families deal with not being able to visit the parks that will be closing.
Yes, let’s ask the chambers to take our kids with them when they take their boondoggles to DC and other places. Then the chambers can lobby for business, and the kids can get to see how government works, or at least see how those groups that ride on the back of government, work.
