The problems created by having our tax dollars for local projects flowing through the Washington DC political process are well documented. Some states are net tax “donors” to the rest of the country, and some are net tax recipients. But even worse, the DC filter results in a lot of deadweight loss, as the bureaucrats must use our tax dollars to decide where our tax dollars go.

One additional problem hasn’t been quite as highly publicized. In order to get preference in receiving those tax dollars, our own local and state bureaucrats are using our tax dollars to lobby the feds.

State and local governments, including public universities and other government entities, spent $133 million in tax dollars to lobby the federal government last year. That’s a 148 percent jump from just eight years ago. Much of this is designed to entice congressmen to put ever more expensive earmarks into federal legislation. Yes, our hard-earned tax dollars get spent to create even more spending of our hard-earned tax dollars. Hey, they’ve got us coming and going! Kerpen also points out that these state and local governmental bodies are specifically exempt from the Senate’s $50 limit on gifts and the ban on gifts in the House. Yep, they can also use our tax dollars to buy lavish gifts to butter up our politicians. And the problem of using tax dollars to lobby for more tax dollars isn’t limited to the federal government. A report on tax-funded lobbying in Texas found spending to be as high as $50 million per year in just that one state.

I’ve said before that in most situations, the people in government aren’t horrible people. After all, how can I blame a university or local government for spending a little money in order to get a windfall from the feds? If I were a local official, that’s how I’d do it. I’d much rather take tax dollars from the feds than raise taxes on my own constituents.

But that highlights the problem. The system itself is broken. It doesn’t matter who we elect; the system itself will create bad results.