The authority for the Port of Corpus Christi spends a half-million dollars a year on lobbyists in Washington, spending that has paid big dividends, according to John LaRue, executive director for the port.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times is reporting that the port is responsible for most of the $600,000 spent on lobbyists in Washington by Corpus Christi government entities.

Lobbyists were responsible for persuading U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to include a provision in a bill that allowed the U.S. Navy to deed 500 acres of the former Naval Station Ingleside to the port at no cost, LaRue told the Caller-Times. According to a records check by the paper, lobbyists on the port payroll worked to get the port designated a Gulf of Mexico cotton delivery point and for a water resources development act.

"'If you don’t have people in D.C. to protect yourself, you’re going to be in trouble,' LaRue said. 'We’re not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, we’re talking about hundreds of millions.'"

Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of the Capitol by flickr user scottlenger, used via a Creative Commons license.