Taxpayer-funded lobbying has been a long-time concern for the Rio Grande Foundation. The forces of limited government are nearly always outmatched in terms of overall funding (for example, the pro-“Democracy Dollars” groups have spent nearly $500,000 in support of that ballot measure while opponents have spent less than $250).
But at least those lefty groups have spent THEIR OWN money. The City of Albuquerque and Mayor Tim Keller are using taxpayer dollars to support various bond issues on the ballot. This goes beyond the Mayor using his office and access to the media to argue in support of bond passage. In fact, the City of Albuquerque website itself includes a plea form Mayor Keller to vote for the bonds on the ballot. You can see the screen shot below if the City changes the site:
Regardless of whether you think all the bonds are great and should be passed or not, government resources should not be used to lobby on ballot measures. Remember, government is SUPPOSED to serve us, not the other way around. You can read about our ethics complaint here.
They do the same thing in Las Cruces. They campaigned heavily for a $35.5 million bond issue they wanted to pass. Their current budget has slightly more than $1 million for “community relations.” I suspect they have a bigger editorial staff than the city’s daily and weekly newspapers.