Amid talk of a new atmosphere at the Georgia Capitol and an ongoing push toward new lobbying regulations, lobbyists have spent close to $1 million this year making their cases to state legislators.
That translates to hundreds of dinners and big handfuls of free tickets for Georgia’s part-time legislators. But there seems to be a consensus that there’s less largesse this year. Former Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson resigned just before the session began, after his wife confirmed a sexual relationship between the speaker and a gas company lobbyist.
“The atmosphere is completely different,” said Tom Plank, the acting State Ethics Commission secretary, whose group tracks and compiles lobbying expenditures for the state.
“And there’s a lot less pressure” to spend on legislators, Plank said. “I’ve been told that by lobbyists, lots of lobbyists.”
Perhaps, but that doesn’t exactly show on the bottom line. Lobbyists spent more than $962,000 on legislators and other officials through the latest deadline, March 31, commission records show. When The Telegraph looked at lobbyist spending in April 2008, they’d spent $882,800, with about the same amount of time left to go in the legislative session.
For the full 2008 session, lobbyists ended up spending $1.46 million. They spent $1.5 million over the full 2009 session, according to the commission’s Web site.
This year, hospital groups have spent heavily as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s hospital tax proposal, meant to help balance the ailing state budget, has been bandied about. The other usual groups — car dealers, utility companies, pro-business groups, groups representing local governments and other special interests — are also putting in their two cents, which typically costs them thousands of dollars.
There’s also been an increase in grass-roots lobbying, Plank said, with people who aren’t professional lobbyists registering with the ethics commission and coming to the Capitol to give legislators an earful.
“We were just mobbed with those types of registrants,” Plank said.
The state continues to pay people to lobby itself, with lobbyists for the University System of Georgia laying out nearly $5,000 so far. Mercer University in Macon has spent nearly $5,600 as it works to protect various grants it gets from the state, as well as a scholarship program that benefits students at private universities.
Speaker of the House David Ralston, who replaced Richardson, is going after several ethics reforms this year. His bill would require quicker reports from lobbyists, who would have to disclose their spending every 15 days instead of monthly during the legislative session. It would ban lobbyists from e-mailing or sending text messages to lawmakers while they’re in committee or voting on a bill on the floor. It would increase penalties for bribery and failing to file disclosures, as well as focus more on conflicts of interest.
But Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, is taking heat from at least one good-government group, Common Cause Georgia, as well as Democrats who say his bill doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t include caps on gifts or meals, which are often enjoyed at Atlanta’s best restaurants. Common Cause Executive Director Bill Bozarth said the bill also includes “a huge weakening” of existing laws by scaling back on the type of trips that must be disclosed.
But Ralston said critics favor too much government control. He said the bill focuses on transparency so the voters can decide what’s OK and what’s too much every two years, when representatives and senators are up for re-election.
“I go to dinners, OK?” Ralston said. “And you can look it up and see what they spend on me. ... And I think the public then has a right to look and do research and find out if my decisions are being influenced by dinners. There’s no meal that’s ever influenced a legislative action on my part. ... I’d just as soon have a sandwich back in Blue Ridge. (But) it’s part of the work day.”
Many legislators say free dinners are a good way to get to know people in a relaxed atmosphere and a good way to kill an evening in Atlanta, which is often far from home. They say they learn a lot from lobbyists, many of whom have spent years in their trade and are experts in their aspect of state government. Lobbyists often have a major hand in writing bills.
Dinners and other gifts are laid out online at the State Ethics Commission’s Web site, http://ethics.georgia.gov, as are campaign contributions. Disclosure is the key, and will remain the focus of ethics reform, Ralston said.
“In Georgia, the public can see who spends what on whom,” he said.
To contact writer Travis Fain, call 361-2702.
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