John Wirth's Excellent Idea

John Wirth is a Mequon alderman and (were it not for Jim Ott) would also be in Kurt Gielow's old seat come 2007.

He draws our attention to Mequon's quitting of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities (a "give us the money" lobbying group.)

Here's the core of the argument:

The use of tax dollars for lobbying is wrong on so many levels. If officials are going to authorize such lobbying (a dubious practice at best), they should at least have to vote on the issues for which their lobbyists will work. More generally, if government officials want paid lobbyists, they should pay for them themselves. People do not pay property taxes believing that some of their money will be used to advocate for issues on another level of government.

In other words--it's one level of Gummint taking your dollars (at gunpoint) to get all fuzzy, warm, and wet with ANOTHER level of Gummint--which also takes your dollars (at gunpoint.)

Note the commonality--"taking dollars at gunpoint."

Maybe the City of Brookfield will follow suit. Then again, maybe not.