FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 10, 2008
Contact: Ed Frank (202) 349-5880 or Dallas Woodhouse (919) 839-1011

RALEIGH – The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity today sent letters to U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr of North Carolina and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (3rd Dist. – NC) urging the lawmakers to stand firm in the face of a $38,000 taxpayer-funded lobbying campaign that’s intended to secure federal funding for three local projects in Havelock, NC.

According to an article in the April 8 edition of the Havelock News, three local officials recently visited Washington, DC, to meet with the lawmakers in the hopes that they would act as “the city’s Santa Claus” and secure tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars for three local pet projects.  The article also reported that the City of Havelock has spent $38,000 in local taxpayer money to hire lobbyists at the Washington-based lobbying firm Marlowe and Co., in an attempt to influence Dole, Burr and Jones into securing $48.2 million in federal taxpayer dollars for the three local projects, including $20 million for a local sewer project and $200,000 to replace lighting at a local recreational complex.

“(W)hen our nation’s Founders decided to establish a national government, did they truly intend for its responsibilities to someday include the funding of every local sewage system and recreation complex in the nation?  I think any reasonable person would agree that this was not their intent,” Americans for Prosperity’s North Carolina State Director, Dallas Woodhouse, wrote in the letter to the lawmakers.  “With all of the obligations already facing federal taxpayers, this is a role they obviously cannot afford to assume.”

Woodhouse also said that forcing taxpayers to spend $38,000 dollars to pay high-priced Washington lobbyists to secure $48.2 million more taxpayer dollars is adding insult to injury for taxpayers.

“After all, isn’t it already the job of city officials like the Mayor, Commissioner and City Manager to represent the city and communicate the city’s needs to other leaders like you?” Woodhouse asked in the letter.  “If they believe that the federal taxpayer should fund these local projects – and as we’ve already stated, we find that to be a very questionable belief – shouldn’t they be able to communicate that directly to you without having to spend $38,000 taxpayer dollars on costly Washington lobbyists in a clear attempt to influence you?”

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org
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