Defunding the National Governors Association

Why I Left the NGA BY: Gov. Fob James

The National Governor’s Association (NGA) wants me to send them $100,000 out of Alabama state taxpayers’ funds for next year’s "dues." What would the state get for that money?

Well, the NGA sends the state policy papers and briefs that nobody here reads and that include the same information we get elsewhere. We can better follow what is going on in Washington through our own state congressional delegation. And we can get better, first-hand information about what is going on in other states by calling the other governors and their staffs directly.

The NGA also holds biannual meetings of the nation’s governors. I would have to travel to those meetings, again at taxpayers’ expense, and that would just take me away from my duties here in Alabama.

Perhaps most importantly, the NGA is supposed to represent the interests of the states in Washington. But their view of what is good for the states is a bigger federal government. For example, in trying to justify their role recently, the NGA bragged that it successfully lobbied Congress for increased highway spending, and helped to stop curbs on runaway      Medicaid spending. So I am supposed to send state taxpayers’ funds to the NGA so they can lobby Congress for more federal spending that will require even higher federal taxes on the citizens of Alabama.

Alabama’s interests in Washington can be better represented by the state’s congressional delegation. That delegation was chosen by the people of this state in open, democratic elections. The Washington staff of the NGA, by contrast, is chosen by the Washington staff of the NGA, and seems to more often represent the views of Washington than of Alabama.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, the nation’s largest grassroots taxpayer activist group, says, "All that taxpayers get from the NGA for all this money is another liberal lobbying group." Norquist explains that the chairmanship of the NGA rotates every year between a Republican and a Democrat governor. As a result, no chairman is in control long enough to really change the organization. That leaves daily control in the hands of the NGA staff, who are mostly Washington careerists that see the federal government as the source of all wisdom and goodness.

As Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute says, "At a time when states are aggressively cutting taxes and downsizing their state governments, it certainly seems to make sense to save money by withholding payments to the National Governor’s Association." Even after leaving the NGA, Alabama would still be a member of the Southern Governor’s Association, which charges very little in dues and better reflects the outlook of the people of Alabama. I would also still be a member of the Republican Governor’s Association.

In other words, for $100,000 of your money to the NGA, the state would get less than nothing. It would get another Washington bureaucracy that lobbies for a bigger federal government rather than the true interest of Alabama. Given my responsibility to prudently spend the funds of the state’s taxpayers I cannot justify that expenditure.