Hahn Debates Groene
Jun 19, 02:45 PM CST
Candidate for Governor David Hahn will debate Mike Groene, the leader of a petition drive aimed at placing a cap on spending in the state.
The debate will take place tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 on KFOR radio. If you are outside of the Lincoln area, you can also listen online by going to the station’s website.
Hahn has been aggressive in opposing the spending lid petition. Here’s the AP story detailing his position.
For more information on the petition – being circulated by right wing out-of-state interests and the effect it will have on our state, click here.
– by eric | Send this to a friend
A quick Google search of “Americans for Limited Government (ALG)” shows that they are a well funded, “secretly” funded, Radical Right group that is playing this same game all over the Country. A Washington state blogger has done some further interesting (and scary) information. Check out http://tinyurl.com/knf9u Names that this blogger comes up with are shadowy.
Who funds these guys? Gosh! Well, I can’t find it in a hour of searching on the Internet. Here’s what I’ve tried: Federal Election Commission doesn’t list em, not that I can find, anyway. Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission lists the $50,000 donation, but the link on ALG’s name doesn’t open for me. IRS lists them, but gives no information besides their town, no tax exempt code, nothing. Sourcewatch, Public Citizen, and Open Secrets don’t list them. Neither does Wikipedia. Neither does the Better Business Bureau that serves their area. Essential Okie says they’re affiliated with Americans for Tax Reform. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, tells us this group shares the same policy goals as Cato Institute and Americans for Tax Reform.
Pretty darn shadowy for a group that declares no hidden agenda. Well, we know where the funding for their friends, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) comes from, Norquist & Co. ATR apparently was a conduit for laundering Preston Gates funds in the illegal Abramoff Native American scheme . The ATR offices were the weekly meeting place for Tom DeLay’s K Street Project. Cozy.
Follow the money. These lying rich elites could/should (and probably have) buy (bought?) themselves some third world country.
In Washington from the above blog:
This Illinois group, affiliated with the Cato Institute, The Federalist Society, and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, has sent the single biggest check yet, $50,000, in support of I-933, AKA Washington Farm Bureau’s Developer’s Loophole Initiative. [UPDATE: Thanks to Citizen Steve of Washington Outsiders for calling attention to the new donation, as of 5/19—another $50,000. That makes $100,000 from this radical Illinois group to overturn our laws.] [Second update, 6/13/06: NPI’s piece on the Right-wing initiatives alerted me to recheck the PDC database. ALG has now donated $200,000.]
I just went back to Google and picked up some more articles. These guys are dropping money around a number of states.
In Oregon:
A proposed Colorado-style spending limit drew $189,122, of which $75,000 in the latest round came from Americans for Limited Government of Glenview, Ill., which contributed $40,000 previously. Voters rejected a spending limit in 2000. http://tinyurl.com/kll3w
In Montana:
They’re also being aided by Americans for Limited Government, a national group helping promote similar spending-cap measures in a half-dozen other states.
“We’re definitely happy to help any group that is doing this great work in any state,’’ says Heather Wilhelm, communications director for the group in Glenview, Ill., a Chicago suburb. “I think it’s really inspiring that we’re seeing this grass-roots uprising across the country of people who are really trying to take back their government.’’
Americans for Limited Government, which doesn’t reveal its financial supporters, is a nonprofit group that says it represents “hard-working taxpayers against the bipartisan tax-eaters and career politicians who have come to dominate politics today.’’
http://tinyurl.com/fxkp5
In Nebraska:
They are being paid $2.50 per signature. Sponsors of the petition are Mike Groene of North Platte and Americans for Limited Government of Glenview, Ill., which has put at least $100,000 into the Nebraska drive. This same organization is behind efforts in many other states.
http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/
In Oklahoma:
Who knew one could find irony while reading an ethics commission report?
Oklahomans In Action, Inc. (OIA), the organization which circulated an initiative petition calling for a statewide vote on a so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR), claimed its cause was something Oklahomans wanted. But according to its own report to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, very few Oklahomans cared enough to help fund the project.
In fact, OIA reported only $6,718.65 in contributions by individuals for the campaign, which raised more than $1.22 million. The December report included a list of 46 Oklahomans, listing only first names along with addresses, who donated a total of $3,475 in increments of $50 to $100 with one $200 donor.
The bulk of money raised to pay for the petition drive came from out-of-state organizations which sponsor such antitax and anti-public education ideals.
Out-of-state organizations and their donations listed in the December report were:
• Americans for Limited Government, Glenview, Ill., $350,000;
• National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Alexandria, Calif., $180,000;
• Legislative Education Action Drive, Glenview, Ill., $70,000;
• Americans for Tax Reform, Washington, D.C., $225,000;• Colorado Club for Growth Issue Committee, Colorado Springs, Colo., $200,000; and
• National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Glenview, Ill., $180,000.
The Americans for Tax Reform, Colorado Club for Growth, and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation are all antitax organizations that lobby for smaller government.
(Anybody else note how many of these “movements” are from Glenview, Ill.?)
http://www.okea.org/TABOR/Focus/tsdrspdfrtbrdrv.htm
Why, oh why, when we Nebraskan’s were foresighted enough to keep our land from being bought up by out of state interests with initiative 300, are we so quick to let groups like this (oh, they seem to be closely linked to “Club for Growth”) come in an buy our votes.
People, you have a ballot box and an accessible State Unicameral, why cannot you pay attention to what/who you are voting for and quit messing with the State Constitution. I have been on a school board since 2004, and we have had one meeting were parents actually attended. That was over a basketball coach.
Being a patriot begins with being an informed elector.
— jimdake Jun 19, 07:17 PM CST #
What is so obvious about all of this is that right wing Republicans and the talk show hosts refuse to accept the reality that the GOP has failed to control spending under Heineman and Johanns and the GOP legislature. The facts are that spending has gone way up since 1998. Duh, that is because since 1998 we have had Johanns and Heineman.
You have to wonder why these folks refuse to recognize that the proof of the GOP’s poor tax policy is the Johanns/ Heineman administrations terrible results.
Just imagine if you closed your eyes and when you opened them, a democrat had been governor since 98. These talk show hosts would be screaming about incompetence, but instead because they cannot admit that the radical right wing policies have failed, they promote a petition drive.
If you want lower taxes, vote Hahn, if you want higher taxes and failed economic development, vote the status quo.
— vince powers Jun 20, 06:07 PM CST #
We should pass similar legislation here requiring petition gatherers to be residents of Nebraska.
We need to send their hired hands packing out of the State of Nebraska for good.
— Robert Smith Jun 21, 06:54 PM CST #