Koch-Funded 'Bill Mill' ALEC Names Mississippi Philip Gunn National Chairman

When Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn resumes his leadership at the Legislature in 2020, he will also be serving as the new national chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that pushes corporate-friendly and anti-public-education legislation in state houses across the nation. The right-wing billionaire Koch family, an assortment of lobbyists, corporations and wealthy donors fund ALEC.

Gunn's elevation in the group comes just days after The Center for Constitutional Rights, a progressive organization, released a report claiming that ALEC has pushed legislation that furthers white supremacy and corporate power in right-leaning states.

Since Republicans took control of the Mississippi House and named Gunn speaker in 2012, the Legislature has passed numerous bills into law that were written in whole or in part in ALEC's backrooms. Former Jackson Free Press state reporter Arielle Dreher reported in 2016 that those bills included ending Mississippi's tax on out-of-state corporations and the voucher program that uses public education funds for private-school tuition.

ALEC churns out "model legislation" that conservative lawmakers in states across the country can introduce in their respective states by simply "filling in the blanks" with their state's name and a few other details. Though ALEC heavily influences policy at state houses, it is not officially registered as a lobbying organization. Instead, ALEC is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity organization, which means it is not supposed to engage in "substantial" lobbying under the U.S. tax code.

Read more: https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/dec/06/mississippi-speaker-named-national-chair-koch-fund/