Oh goody! Back up the truck and load er’ up. NOT!

Texas Watchdog - http://www.texaswatchdog.org

Former state Rep. Fred Hill now lobbying on behalf of cities, counties
Posted By Jennifer Peebles On February 19, 2009

With 20 years’ experience in the state legislature, the Richardson Republican [2] once talked his fellow House members out of passing a property tax cap that both the governor and the famously autocratic [3] House Speaker Tom Craddick supported. He chaired the state [4] House Local Government Ways and Means Committee. The [5] Texas Municipal League [6] inducted him into its hall of fame for state legislators.
Hill may have left the legislature in early January, but he still has clout. And he’s still being paid with Texans’ tax dollars.


That’s because he’s the latest lawmaker to go through Capitol Hill’s revolving door and become a lobbyist. Hill is now representing a handful of north Texas city and town governments in Austin this year, work for which he would be paid between $395,000-$699,990 this year. Also among his clients are the [7] Dallas Area Rapid Transit system and two local government groups who collect dues from their member local governments.
In making the change, he’s joined a small army of former legislators-turned-lobbyists at the statehouse. A [8] 2005 study by the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Public Integrity found 70 former legislators lobbying then at the Texas capitol, more than in any other state.

Critics of the revolving door say voters and taxpayers are unable to tell when lawmakers stop thinking like lawmakers and start thinking like someone on the hunt for a job. And in Hill’s case – like many others who have waltzed through the revolving door – he went hunting for work from entities that had much to gain or lose from the actions on his committee: local governments.

He registered his firm, a limited liability corporation called Solutions for Local Control, with the Secretary of State’s office on Nov. 20, records show.

In most cases, lawmakers don’t start lobbying duties until their replacement is sworn in. This year, that would have been Jan. 13. But by Jan. 3, the former chairman of the House Local Government Ways and Means Committee was asking for business from local governments.

That’s OK, according to Hill — he says he formally resigned via letter to the governor on Jan. 2.
“This doesn’t pass the smell test,” said Peggy Venable, who leads the Texas branch of Americans For Prosperity, a fiscally conservative taxpayer watchdog. “When did he stop being a representative for his constituents and start being a representative for his lobbying interests?”

Hill says he’s not a lobbyist in the traditional sense. He’s signed on to work for local governments because he believes in fighting for taxpayers and for local control. Former State Representative now registered lobbyist Hill must believe that we are all CRAZY. He has never represented the taxpayers interest. He has always supported the interest of those receiving entities. He did not join up with AFP and the likes, he signed up to lobby for TML, local cities, etc. Signed up to work for local control, you bet the control to take more from mine and your pockets. Drastic difference in taxpayer and tax receiver! What a bone head statement.

Read the whole story at the Texas Watchdog link above.