A recent study shows some lobbyists in Madison were paid thousands of dollars per hour to lobby legislators on various issues.
Matt Rothschild from the non-profit campaign watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says one of the top-paid lobbyists represented the Milwaukee Bucks as the team wanted state money to pay for a new arena...
".....Monsanto spent $4,000 an hour on lobbyists, Northern Natural Gas spent $3,000 an hour on lobbying, the (Milwaukee) Bucks, who spent more than anybody on lobbying, spent $482,000. Do you know what they were making? $2,389 per hour...."
One group...Wisconsin Infrastructure Investment Now...spent $329,000 for two hours of lobbying. They represent transportation, mining and power interests according the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Another lobby...American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, describes itself as “a partnership of the industries involved in producing electricity from coal.” spent $27,000 on three hours of lobbying.
The report is on the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website.
Rothschild says there's a body of evidence that all the lobbying pays off....
"....it pays off because they get their way in Madison. They get their way in writing the legislation as the mining company Gogebic Taconite did. A lot of these companies are in there while the legislation is being written and their lawyers are in there drafting the legislation for our legislators who are supposed to working for us and not the lobbyists...."
Rothschild says there is a movement happening to amend the U.S. Constitution. 59 villages, towns, cities and counties have passed votes to say corporations aren't people and money isn't speech.
