CALIFORNIA'S CITIES STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE IN SACRAMENTO.

Byline: Will Shuck Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO - In Sacramento, when lobbyists speak lawmakers listen, with one glaring exception - cities. When cities talk, alone or through their organizations, oftentimes the only ones listening are their local delegations.

In part, it's because cities don't offer help for politicians' re-elections, don't fill campaign war chests or put people on the street looking for votes.

Aware of this, and still stinging from the loss of tax dollars and one-time funds, the League of California Cities hopes to restructure its lobbying strategy.

They have to.

They have no juice, say lawmakers and their staffs.

``Of course they don't,'' agrees Bob Waste, a professor of public policy at California State University, Sacramento. ``If cities had juice, the revenue picture would look very different than it has over the past few years.''

By ``revenue picture'' Waste means how much money flows from cities to the state, and vice-versa. And by that measure, cities say they are billions of dollars in the hole.

Local officials say Sacramento has repeatedly raided local revenues, siphoning to the capitol tax dollars that once stayed at city halls. And they worry that in the present tight budget climate, they may lose yet more money to the state.

It's not for lack of trying. Nearly every city has a lobbyist in Sacramento. Tallied up, government, from cities to large departments, spends more money lobbying legislators than do manufacturers or any single business category.

``But most of that money is going to simply keeping track of legislation. Cities would probably do just as well hiring an assistant city manager to keep track of that,'' says Waste. ``But cities think, `If I don't have a lobbyist, I'm not a player.'''

``Virtually every city has a lobbyist,'' says Waste.

And cities don't just stand alone, they also campaign as a group, through the League of California Cities, a $6.8-million-a-year operation funded by dues from its 476 member cities. The League of Cities has six full-time lobbyists of its own.

By that standard, cities should be major players. Big sources of juice.

``Pound for pound, they should probably do better than anyone in the state,'' offers Waste.

But no.

``We do feel that we don't have enough clout,'' says Megan Taylor, League of Cities communications director. ``And you don't have to be a political scientist to spot some things that are particular challenges for local government as they try to get their point across.''

For one thing, she notes, cities can't make contributions. They're spending taxpayer dollars, and it's against the law to use that money to support political candidates.