The best way for special interest officials to get boondoggle spending is to frame it in terms of needed types of spending such as water, school, and wastewater. This way people can’t question it.
Coming this year, many representatives looking out for their district and the state will make a simple demand: present your legislative agenda in a town hall meeting for public vetting, or else rename the agenda “the local senior bureaucrat legislative agenda”. Just don’t call it the district’s legislative agenda if the district has never been given a chance to understand it.
This will give legislators an opportunity to consider the agenda. Traditionally, local governments have dropped the “local” legislative agenda in the lap of the state representative in the middle of the session. With the agenda is the implied threat that failure to push it is the same as opposing constituents. Having a vetting process that constituents can participate in will be good for the entire process.
Such meetings are likely to draw local government employees who favor more spending, and will offer a challenge for local conservative activists to represent the interests of fiscal responsibility.
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