"The new network, ACCE, will follow the same basic structure, with corporate lobbyists introduced through the organization to elected city and county council members with the aim of promoting policies advantageous to those companies," the Guardian reports. "Big businesses are asked to pay up to $25,000 a year for the privilege of having such direct and intimate input into the legislative process."

On its website, ALEC says the new organization's mission is to "advance limited government and free market principles in local government through model policies, conferences and online collaboration."

The group will connect members with "ground-breaking research" and the "nation's top industry experts" and other policy experts "who work with issues, processes and problem-solving strategies upon which municipal officials vote."

Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst at Common Cause, a liberal advocacy group, told Bloomberg that the ACCE will "ease the way for corporations to take over local services.”

“The public sector is a $6 trillion enterprise," he said, "and this is a huge money-making opportunity for them.”

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