Lobbying

Some Counties and County offices in Indiana employ lobbyists to represent their interests with State or Federal legislators. Many advocates of government transparency believe it is important that any government agency engaged in lobbying make full disclosure of any lobbying efforts. Without making any judgments about the practice itself, we agree that complete transparency about how government spends your money is always appropriate.
Union County does not currently employ any lobbyist directly, and a check of records for the last 5 years confirms that the county has not done this in recent memory. This assertion may be verified by checking the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission web site, where all employers of lobbyists must be registered. A search may easily be performed on "Union County" to verify most recent information.
Union County is a member of the National Association of Counties (NACO), an organization that employs lobbyists at the national level to promote the interests of county government. Our dues to this organization are covered by our dues paid to the Association of Indiana counties.
Union County is also a member of the Association of Indiana Counties (AIC), an organization that employs lobbyists within our State to promote the interests of county government. Union County pays $922.95 annually, and some portion of this is passed through to the National Association of Counties (NACO).
None of Union County's offices directly employ any lobbyist, but most elected officials belong to professional associations that hire lobbyists. You may learn the amount of dues paid to professional associations that each elected officials belong to  by looking at any of the budget reports for "county general" and searching for the word "dues" in that report. Each budget report shows the amount paid in this category for the previous year, the amount budgeted in the current year, and the amount spent so far in the reporting period for the report you are viewing.
A complete listing of organizations and people who employ lobbyists in Indiana may be found on the State's Lobbying Data web page.
There is currently no requirement to register lobbyists who focus on local (county or municipal) government officials, so no reliable information is available on efforts to influence local officials.