Fighting a Corporate Takeover of the States

by Tim McFeeley, Chief Executive Officer

You have to admire the ingenuity of conservative special interests in America. Having convinced Americans that the national government is cumbersome, wasteful and out-of-touch, they have followed the trail of devolution (which they helped blaze) to the state capitals in an effort to limit government there as well.

As Abraham Lincoln wisely said, "you can’t fool all the people all the time," and the public is beginning to recognize that the special interests aren’t interested in a better government, they want a powerless one.

Americans have started to demand checks on corporate and special interest power at the federal level, from limits on soft-money contributions to reforms inspired by the collapse of Enron.

Less attention has been paid to the state level, where one of the primary vehicles right-wing special interests use to influence legislators is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is organized as a tax-exempt charity and purports to be an organization of, by, and for state legislators. In fact, 97 percent of ALEC’s funding comes from huge corporations like Enron, R.J. Reynolds, and the Corrections Corporation of America.

These corporate funders not only sit at the same ALEC committee tables as state legislators, but their consent is required for any model legislation to receive the ALEC seal of approval. ALEC then peddles its ultra-conservative legislation to legislatures under the pretense of being authored and approved by expert state-elected officials.

Some of the "model" legislation that ALEC is currently promoting includes:

· Education Accountability Act, which allows states to create a voucher program after declaring a public school "bankrupt;"

· Capital Gains Tax Elimination Act, which abolishes the capital gains tax for corporations and individuals; and

· Environmental Federalism, a package of bills that allows states to override federal regulations on a variety of environmental laws, including air and water quality standards.

The Center for Policy Alternatives and our allies in the nonprofit and labor communities are working at the state level to encourage more debate, more input from average Americans, and more information, in order to break the hegemony of conservative special interests. ALEC will succeed in its effort to constrict government and promote special interests over the common good to the extent that the rest of us remain on the sidelines.