California Coddles Lobbyists and Opposes Small Business

In a previous blog post, I showed how California has by far the highest yearly fees of any state for small-business LLCs.  $800 per year, plus a share of the gross.  The vast majority of states charge no yearly tax at all, and those that do typically charge $200 or less.

By contrast, California has some of the lowest fees on lobbyists.  $25 a year.  Many other states charge a bit more; here's an old (2003) compilation of lobbyist fees and here is a more recent one.  As you can see, many states charge more like $100/year, with Massachusetts at the high end at $1000.

To his credit, CA State Senator Leland Yee proposes to raise the lobbying fee.  To a whopping $50 a year.  Puhleese.  Well, he has to worry some, cause the lobbyist lobby defeated Proposition 15 in 2010, which would have, among many other things, raised fees to $350.  But $50 a year is pathetic.

This increased fee is not going to raise much revenue for California.  Prop 15 was estimated to raise $1.5  million a year.  So it wont fix our budget.  But nor would it impact the big lobbyists, for whom a million dollars, split multiple ways so it more like a thousand dollars, is chump change.  For example, PG&E is estimated to have spent $45 million in 2010.  Akin Gump et. al., a top lobbying firm (they boast of it here), made $25 million in lobbying income in 2011.

So, why does California impede small business with huge small business LLC fees, while coddling lobbyist groups?  Yes, that's a rhetorical question.  It's due to our system of government, which is corruption.  Our state representatives don't want the people to get money from the lobbyist groups, they want themselves to get money from lobbyists.  And the cheaper the fees, the more lobbyists, which means more for them.