One in an occasional series examining government spending as California copes with recession.

Despite mounting money woes, California's local government agencies continue to spend tens of millions each year to influence state government – with taxpayers picking up a rising tab.

Far more public funds were paid by cities, counties and school districts during the two-year legislative session that ended Dec. 1 than at any time this decade, records show.

Statewide, more than $58 million was spent by local government, not including colleges, utilities, special districts or regional coalitions.

Tiny Half Moon Bay, with only about 13,000 residents, helped lead the parade by paying nearly $1 million to push two bills aimed at easing its $18 million debt over a stalled housing project. Neither bill passed.

Los Angeles County made Capitol muscle a big-bucks priority, spending nearly $3.7 million to employ eight lobbyists and to contract separately with five lobbying firms to protect its governmental and law enforcement interests.

Lobbying by local government the past two years consumed nearly one-third more money than in any other legislative session of the decade.

Some of the local tax money bankrolled a separate layer of advocacy, supplementing the work of staff or contract lobbyists by funding dozens of associations that spend millions pushing policies favorable to counties, cities, school boards, sheriff's departments or other dues-paying members.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, called lobbying by local government a "prodigious political force" that doesn't always serve taxpayers well.

"We believe a lot of wasted money goes into local government lobbying," he said.

Coupal and other critics say the net result is added pressure to expand programs, rather than looking for cost savings and efficiencies.

"I resent having my county money used to lobby state government in that way," said Lew Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee.

Chairwoman Susan Peters of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors defended the spending.

"More than ever, we need to have representatives on-site to protect our interests," Peters said of Sacramento County.

Counties rely extensively on state funding for welfare, health, judicial, indigent care and numerous other services, so stakes rise for local safety nets as revenues fall and state officials wrestle over multibillion-dollar cuts.

"That's really the crunch time," said Paul McIntosh, director of the California State Association of Counties.

Dan Wall, lobbyist for Los Angeles County, said the state's budget fight threatened more than a half-billion dollars of the county's funds.

Besides money woes, lobbying was exacerbated the past two years by wrangling over regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and jockeying for billions in road, school, water and other bond funds approved by voters in 2006.

Folsom and a few other local governments recently cut their lobbying. But with the legislative session only 2 months old, it is not known whether that will become common practice once the state closes its $40 billion shortfall.

Sacramento-area communities differed significantly in their spending for lobbying in 2007-08, but totals typically consumed only a tiny fraction of their budgets.

Among counties, Sacramento spent $857,855 for lobbyists or advocacy groups, compared with $780,000 for Placer County, $224,000 for El Dorado County and $100,000 for Yolo County.

Sacramento was the highest local spender among cities, $797,231, while Elk Grove spent $152,000 and Roseville, $81,250. Several cities, including Rancho Cordova and Galt, spent nothing at all.

Two Sacramento County school districts consistently have ranked among the 10 or 15 highest-spending districts of each two-year session – Sacramento City Unified and Grant Joint Union.

Grant, serving about 14,000 students, spent nearly $600,000 on lobbying over the past eight years – some of it pushing for state authorization of a ballot measure, approved in 2007, to merge with neighboring districts.

Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.