At the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - here's my calculation of how much corporations paid to buy your legislator - these are guesstimates, of course - based on information that I have from 2008 and 2010 - so the numbers are probably LOW.
| Dinner and Speech Sponsorships | $ 495,000.00 |
| Sponsorships of the Annual Meeting - 82 companies | $2,005,000.00 |
| Exhibitor Fees - 55 exhibitors (based on 2008 rates/member rate) | $ 99,850.00 |
| Corporate Scholarships for Legislators to attend the conference | $1,425,000.00 |
| $4,024,850.00 |
AND that's the mucho dinero for just one of three national meetings that ALEC holds.
And I'm sure that some company sponsored the Kiddie Kongress too - but I can't find the fee for that.
Must cost a lot to brainwash kids for three days.
It's a deal at any price
to get in the pants of your legislator
so they can have pro-corporate legislation introduced at the state and federal level.
The corporations must be laughing all the way to their checkbooks to pay for the next meeting.
Are the corporations able to write all of this off for tax purposes? Just wondering!
ReplyDeleteBased on my work in nonprofits - for most of the expenses listed, yes. The scholarship money from what I've read is a direct donation to ALEC - the 501c3 educational organization - from the corporations - which ALEC then distributes to legislators. The sponsorships would also be considered a "charitable" donation to a 501c3 to help ALEC meet their mission of "education".
ReplyDeleteIf people only knew... thank you for continuing to get the word out. ALEC is the "Perfect storm".
ReplyDelete