Last summer, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced the launch of a spinoff organization aimed at local government. The American City County Exchange (ACCE) aims to "advance limited government and free market principles in local government through model policies, conferences and online collaboration."
In December, ACCE held its first winter meeting, and it has announced that its second annual conference will be held this July. These meetings give a sense of the ACCE policy agenda, which, not surprisingly, mimics that of ALEC. As the Center for Media and Democracy reported last week, labor issues such as right to work, pensions, and minimum wages are scheduled for discussion at the upcoming meeting.
Also up at CMD's website is a fascinating report on the ACCE winter meeting by Steve Arnold, a Fitchburg, Wisconsin alderman who went "undercover" to find out what was going on. He saw a "corporate dating service in action," where industry lobbyists made presentations on their pet issues and courted officials in what Arnold describes as a "you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours" manner. Perhaps most interesting is Arnold's reporting on ALEC's "contradictory approach to local control," exemplified by an emerging ALEC/ACCE strategy for pushing right to work through local initiatives in Republican-controlled states right to work states.
The report, available here, is a must-read for anyone interested in local government law and policy.