Serving Two Masters

Not to dwell on the Wyoming Liberty Group but when an influential state senator admitted he’s a member of their board of directors, my ears perked again. Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, Senate chair of the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee is a WLG board member.

In light of formal legal opinions issued by the Wyoming Attorney General, that’s a conflict of interest. But the curious part about Case’s acknowledgement it it ripped the veil of secrecy WLG maintains about board members. Click on the web page of most non-profit organizations and you find their board members. Not so with WLG.

They list staff members. There’s founder and Texan Susan Gore and a group of other Texans, a Canadian, and a Swede who is now a Wyoming resident. There’s a sprinkling of Wyoming folks including former legislator Amy Edmunds whose husband Harlan is a recently elected legislator.

But not the names of their board members. Under federal tax law, an organization’s board plays critical roles. The board governs the organization, establishing broad policies and objectives, assigning priorities. Boards acquire resources for financing operations. They’re expected to find the money.

Board members determine organizational mission and monitor programs and services. In other words, it’s the WLG board that decided to attack Wyoming’s state employee pension program, fight Medicaid expansion, and oppose legislation requiring certain political action committees to report contributors and expenditures.

WLG board membership of any state legislator problematic. At a recent session of the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, state elections director Peggy Nighswonger expressed concern that organizations raising and spending money supporting or opposing candidates found a way around laws requiring reporting because they didn’t use specific words saying a candidate should or should not be elected.

A proposed bill would require these groups disclose their donors if they “directly or indirectly” advocated for the election or against candidates. Supporters included the League of Women Voters. Marguerite Herman, a lobbyist for the League of Women Voters, said she supports the change.

“Our group supports as much attribution as possible to get information out there to voters,” she said. “They want to know where (the ads) are coming from and who is paying for them so the voters can decide how to place that in their decision-making.”

There was one influential opponent. The Wyoming Liberty Group. One organization running these types of ads during the past election was Republic Free Choice, a conservative group coincidentally staffed by people who happen to be part of the Wyoming Liberty Group.

Like WLG, the Republic Free Choice (RFC) website doesn’t name its board but lists a Cheyenne address and allows for email requests. I submitted one asking for the names of their board members. I received no response.

Case acknowledged membership on the WLG board and involvement of RFC in the questioned campaign tactics, but then used his authority as committee chair to lay the bill back for “an interim study,” the graveyard for many good ideas.

Is Case’s WLG board membership a conflict of interest? In 1997, then Attorney General Bill Hill answered that question, finding a paramount consideration is “the need to maintain public confidence in the integrity of elected representatives.” Hill said legislators must avoid even an appearance of impropriety.

The AG simply paraphrased Jesus who said long ago we cannot serve two masters.

Conflicts of interest occur, the AG said, whenever a legislator finds difficulty in “devoting himself with complete energy, loyalty, and singleness of purpose to the general public interest.”

Case will find it difficult to do that. WLG priorities, established by its board, include fighting efforts to require shadow organizations to report contributions and expenditures to defeat candidates.

The League of Women Voters believes, "People need to know where the money is coming from.” WLG believes people shouldn’t know. As chair of the committee writing election law, Case cannot fully devote himself to the public interest while serving the mission of WLG. He must choose which master he’ll serve.

Wyo Liberty Group is Neither

For a state whose voters don’t like outsiders telling them what to do, Wyoming has given dangerously little attention to a Texan with deep pockets who wants to alter the social and political landscape.

Perhaps that’s because of the misleading name she gave her organization.  Who is the Wyoming Liberty Group (WLG). Why has it targeted public employee retirement benefits?

WLG is a front-organization for the Koch brothers, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and others determined to lower their personal taxes even if senior citizens lose.

ALEC is a collection of large corporations that establishes ties with legislators by funding their trips to exotic resorts, paying for their meals, booze, and entertainment. Between the merrymaking, corporate lobbyists fill legislators full of their version of the “facts.” When the party’s over, legislators return packing so-called “Model Legislation” to introduce in the Wyoming legislature.

One of those “model” bills is called “pension reform.” It’s a pension disaster for public employees. It begins, “The Legislature finds that the defined-benefit model of retirement benefits for state and municipal employees is not fiscally sustainable. It is the intent of the Legislature, therefore, to direct the [state retirement board] to create and maintain a defined-contribution program in which all state and municipal employees hired on or after [date], 2011 will automatically enroll after [X] months of employment to become eligible to accrue retirement benefits.”

ALEC wrote the bill, legislators fill in the blanks and toss the bill into the hopper, and WLG does the lobbying.

WLG cares little about Wyoming. Texan Susan Gore, heiress of the Gore-Tex fortune, created the organization. Her interest in our state is using it as a laboratory to prove that millions of out-of-state dollars can buy public policy victories supported by her rightwing friends.

Who are those “friends”? Sourcewatch.org reports WLG is a member of the State Policy Network (SPN). The Center for Media and Democracy conducted an in-depth investigation. "EXPOSED: The State Policy Network -- The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government," reveals that SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.”

SPN and ALEC direct members like WLG to conduct assaults on public pension plans. Enter the “Reason Foundation.” They’re funded by Koch Family Foundations. David Koch is one of their trustees. Reason Foundation has ties to ALEC.

www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reason_Foundation.

Reason Foundation published a guidebook for WLG’s use in attacking state pension funds. The “Pension Reform Handbook” tells local hayseeds how to identify key leaders, framing the issue so that even some state employees might find “pension reform” attractive. They warn supporters to be prepared for “all kinds of union chicanery and intimidation tactics.”

WLG uses “Wyoming” in its name. That’s where their understanding of Wyoming ends. In addition to the Texan who funds them, their spokespersons attacking Wyoming’s pension program are Canadian Maureen Bader and Texan Jason Gay. He’s written an article entitled, “State Pensions: Will Wyoming Wait Until It’s Too Late.”

The basis of the “Model” bill is a so-called “finding” that “the defined-benefit model of retirement benefits for state and municipal employees is not fiscally sustainable.” That “finding” may have a factual basis somewhere but it doesn’t in Wyoming. Gay and Bader use horror stories that have no application to Wyoming.

WLG has marching orders from national partners but no facts justifying use of the ALEC-SPN-WLG cookie cutter approach in Wyoming. Wyoming’s retirement system is actuarially targeted to be funded at a rate above 114% of the benefits obligations in the near future.

Additionally, benefits earned by retirees over their careers are a significant part of the Wyoming economy. The National Institute on Retirement Security, documents that 28,500 Wyoming pensioners received 510 million benefit dollars in 2012. Retiree spending supports 4300 Wyoming jobs.

Legislators need to think about who elected them. It wasn’t a group of wealthy, selfish outsiders.