An editorial from today's Orange County Register:
No Tax Money For Chamber
Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, upset that the local Chamber of Commerce is taking an opposing view from hers in a local development squabble, has suggested that the city pull its funding from the business organization.
That's a good idea.
"We're giving them up to $200,000 a year to promote and work with Anaheim's businesses, not to do referendums against the city," she told the Los Angeles Times, referring to a referendum the group is supporting to overturn council approval for a high-density housing project in the city's resort district. "The chamber is supposed to be promoting businesses, not pitting them against each other. Why should we give them one dime?"
Certainly, the chamber should be free to back whatever proposals it wants to back, given that it is a private organization representing many of Anaheim's established businesses. It's perfectly free to pit businesses against one another, if it so chooses. In this case it is backing the Disney Co.'s preferences to stop housing in the resort area over those of the housing developer, SunCal.
But whatever side the chamber takes on any issue, it should do it without taxpayer dollars. Ms. Galloway should promptly propose a measure to strip those dollars from a private organization, especially one with an increasingly well-pronounced political agenda. There is inherent unfairness in forcing the city's taxpayers to fund a group that uses its muscle to advance ideas with which they might disagree.
The problem isn't the particular position the chamber is taking here, as Ms. Galloway suggests. The problem is that a group of businesses receives such corporate welfare. Business groups should be able to raise their own dollars to fund the Chamber without having to rely on money taken by force from the city's residents.
The Chamber's spokesman told the Times that cutting its budget would make it more difficult for the group to attract businesses to the city. But the tax dollars comprise only 9 percent of the group's budget, so it could easily make up the difference in private donations. And the best way to attract new businesses to the city is not by funding an interest group, but by continuing with the free-market policies the city has championed; i.e., lower taxes, fewer regulations, bulking up property rights, extending a business-tax holiday.
So let's get the chamber off the dole. And we hope Ms. Galloway starts checking the city budget for any other private groups that might be receiving Anaheim city dollars.
