[Update at end of post]
You may already have your own lobbyist. Maybe. Oh, and this lobbyist might not be representing you or your legislative whims specifically. But you are paying for them with your tax dollars, if that makes you feel any better.
The lobbyist you are paying for, if your School district participates, is the New Hampshire School board Association (NHSBA). The NHSBA
“has provided member school boards with training, support, advice, information, and other essential services to help school board members perform your very important jobs.”
That sounds great. Who wants a School Board that hasn’t been properly “trained” by professionals since 1916? Is there a class on how to make taxpayers feel like morons who should sit down and keep quiet? How to convince people that the budget divided by the number of students is never, ever, the actual cost per student. I bet there is. I’m sure they don’t call it that though.
And then there’ is that lobbying thing I mentioned.
According to the minutes of a February 7th meeting with the Merrimack School Board and School Budget Committee…
..the NHSBA is a great resource to School Board members and often lobbies in favor of as well as against legislation proposed by our legislators
…
the NHSBA provides school board training, collective bargaining information, policy development assistance, and population projection reports. …NHSBA holds a delegate assembly to which each member district sends a delegate. At this delegate assembly, the delegates vote on positions, for or against, various upcoming issues and it is those positions for which the NHSBA lobbies. .. the NHSBA is available 12 months a year for assistance and advice.
Merrimack Taxpayers spent $6,092 dollars for these “services” the last time the check was due (cost is based on district size so membership fees will vary). And this is ( I assume) just another line item on the School budget we all vote for; if anyone every dove down into it we’d find it there next to the other “minutiae.” (Someone did, that’s why we’re talking about it.)
So is this a potential problem?
I would contend that the resources and information portion, even the training, might have some merit. Where I begin to see some soft focus is when it comes to lobbying the Legislature. Your school district, in cooperation with a majority of all participating school districts in the state, are using taxpayer dollars to create a political block that will lobby and/or attempt to influence the General Court at your expense, for their interests.
Am I skeptical? Even under the best of intentions,this creates an authority with resources and connections superior to that of any average taxpayer, who may not even know they are funding the NHSBA, for purposes I think we can all agree will tend to be to the advantage of the NHSBA membership before anything else. Did I mention it was taxpayer funded?
And while this is not specifically a bureaucracy, it exists to serve them. It does not exist without them, or our money. So it is not much different than the equivalent of a “School Board members Union,” funded by taxpayers, to lobby Concord for it’s own unified School board members agenda, whatever that happens to be in any given year. And most of us probably have no idea it exists, or that we are paying for it.
(Does it matter that the Local Government Center (LGC) is their exclusive Web Site sponsor? That’s not making me feel more comfortable.)
So am I justified in my interest–call it concern–over the nature of the NHSBA, it’s existence, method of funding, legislative agenda, and a possible collision of interests with the people funding it? I think it is a bit suspicious but I am more than happy to consider other opinions.
[Update] Added link to Merrimack Meeting minutes. Clarified (I hope) the sentence about the NHSBA acting like it was the Union representation in Concord of ‘dues paying” New Hampshire school boards. That wasn’t coming across the way I intended. Fixed a few typos.
Also: Thanks to Doris Hohensee for this:
Title 1. The State and Its Government, Chapter 15, Lobbyists Section 15:5 Prohibited Activities.
I. Except as provided in paragraph II, no recipient of a grant or appropriation of state funds may use the state funds to lobby or attempt to influence legislation, participate in political activity, orII. Any recipient of a grant or appropriation of state funds that wishes to engage in any of the activities prohibited in paragraph I, or contribute funds to any entity engaged in these activities, shall segregate the state funds in such a manner that such funds are physically and financially separate from any non-state funds that may be used for any of these purposes. Mere bookkeeping separation of the state funds from other moneys shall not be sufficient.
…and this: HB 1342. Legislation to prohibit towns, cities and the state from using taxpayer money to hire lobbyists was defeated this year:
