Lobbying By Localities and State Governments

One of the recent issues that has emerged in various states is the use of lobbyists by state departments as well as cities and towns. Bluntly these lobbyists job is to get more money out of the state or the Federal government. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune writes of a small city, La Puente, hiring a lobbying firm to try and gain money through the state government in Sacramento from the new "stimulus bill" that will be approved by Obama today. According to the article localities in California spend $58 million a year on such services. The argument is whether this is legitimate aspect of governing and a good use of taxpayer money? In Mississippi there is an on-going struggle to reform lobbying law as right now there is no mandatory reporting. A scandal arose when it was discovered how much money the state university system is paying lobbyists. Tennessee is doing the same thing. In the past it used to be businesses and industries lobbying to get things from government, but now even other parts of the governments are using lobbyists to direct spending.