Taxes fund $25M in lobbyists salaries

State agencies signed up at least 270 staffers with taxpayer-funded salaries totaling $25 million to lobby the General Assembly during this year’s legislative session.

They lobbied for and against new laws, worked to reduce the impact of proposed budget cuts and pushed for new construction projects.

How we got the story

A reporter who has been covering lobbyist activities for more than a decade at the Capitol obtained a roster of the more than 1,600 people who registered to lobby during the 2009 session from the state Ethics Commission web site (ethics.ga.gov).

From that list, the reporter culled the names of 300 to 400 lobbyists who registered to represent state agencies or city government. The names of state employees were then matched with a state auditor's database on salaries, which is available at open.georgia.gov.

Legislators, interest groups, state agencies and local government officials were interviewed about lobbying activity, and DeKalb County supplied the cost of its lobbying contract.

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In addition, lawmakers were lobbied by a platoon of city, county and school district advocates, including 11 who said they represented DeKalb County, according to State Ethics Commission reports.

State and local governments were paying for the lobbyists at a time when most agencies, cities, counties and school districts have slashed spending for other things because of the recession’s impact on tax collections.

Lawmakers praise many of the lobbyists and department heads who give them information to help them make their decisions. But they also say they sometimes stand in the way of change. And some argue that taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill to have branches of government at the Capitol lobbying for money.

“The state and cities and counties employ more lobbyists than there are members of the General Assembly,” said Rep. John Lunsford (R-McDonough). “The only person who doesn’t have a damn lobbyist is the taxpayer.”

Jared Thomas of the Georgia chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity said, “Essentially what you’ve got is tax dollars being used to send people to the state Capitol to lobby [lawmakers] to raise their taxes again. People have no idea what’s going on.”

But local government lobbyists say they are having to work harder than ever to defend cities and counties against attempts by the General Assembly to push new mandates and usurp the power of local officials. And many government officials registered to lobby aren’t at the Capitol full time, so they say the State Ethics Commission count is somewhat skewed.

John Millsaps, spokesman for the University System of Georgia, said big state agencies like his have no choice but to send staffers to work with lawmakers.

“We’ve got operations throughout the state,” he said. “You can’t help but be affected by legislation.”

At the state level, the number of people signing up to lobby and the payroll has increased by more than a third since 2002, according to a review by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Then, there were about 200 state employees registered and the payroll for those employees was $17 million.

The increase is partly due to the Ethics Commission’s push to make sure state employees who lobby are registered.

Most of the state employees who spend time at the Capitol don’t do it full time. Because anyone who lobbies lawmakers must register, the list includes college presidents, the head of the state patrol and the commissioner of the massive Department of Human Resources.

This was a particularly important year for agencies to have a presence at the Capitol because lawmakers were slashing spending. In all, lawmakers cut about $3 billion in state spending.

They also allocated $1.2 billion in bonds for construction projects, and agencies wanted to make sure they got some of it.

Two of the biggest state lobbying groups each year represent the University System Board of Regents schools and the court system.

Lobbyists for the University System are such a fixture at the Capitol that reporters have named the row of chairs closest to where budget negotiators work “Regents Row.” In all, the system and its schools registered at least 25 staffers.

House Appropriations Vice Chairman Bob Smith (R-Watkinsville) said he wasn’t surprised to see so many system lobbyists.

“Those people by and large are there to make sure they don’t get left out of funding,” Smith said. “I don’t blame them for being there.”

However, Smith also accused university staffers of helping to stall one bill that would have changed governance of the system and another that would have transferred the handling of the system’s construction projects to a different state agency to save money.

In the end, the system’s budget was cut $275 million, comparable percentagewise to many agencies. It also received more than $300 million in bond funds for construction and maintenance programs.

Regents lobbyists are generally some of the best paid at the statehouse. Tom Daniel, the system’s top man at the Capitol since the 1980s, was paid $178,000 last fiscal year, according to Department of Audits records. Tom Lewis, Georgia State’s longtime head of external affairs, which includes lobbying, made $231,000. He retired late last year but was brought back to lobby during the session and has stayed on as a “senior advisor” to GSU’s president. Steve Wrigley, University of Georgia’s head of governmental relations, was paid $250,000 last year. Unlike the other two, Wrigley spends little time at the Capitol. He has another lobbyist for that.

All three have other roles, managing staffers not involved in lobbying, for instance.

And Millsaps said they do more than beg for money.

“We get a lot of questions for information from the General Assembly,” Millsaps said. “We get constant calls for data, questions about this program, that program.”

UGA and Georgia Tech lobbyists spend the most on lawmakers, mainly because they provide them with football tickets each fall. Such expenses are paid with money from school foundations and alumni associations, not taxpayers.

Judicial lobbyists also pack the statehouse. Juvenile judges, magistrate judges, superior court judges and clerks, the court of appeals, the judicial council and public defenders all have employees listed as lobbyists.

Six people registered to lobby for the Georgia Public Defenders Council, which battles lawmakers every year to maintain funding.

Mack Crawford, head of the public defenders agency, said the council registered six staffers in case they were needed on public defender issues.

While the state may have more people at the Capitol, it’s local government lobbyists who have particularly drawn the ire of Republican leaders in recent years.

Local lobbyists fought several bills to eliminate or reduce their use of property taxes to fund government. They faced an barrage of legislation this year aiming to cap or freeze property assessments used to determine property taxes. One assessment bill, to temporarily cap assessments, passed.

The Municipal Association, which represents cities, registered 12 people this year as lobbyists. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia registered 13.

Among those representing DeKalb County were some of the top private lobbying groups at the Capitol. Other cities, counties and school boards had their own lobbyists as well.

DeKalb County officials said Georgia Link, a firm that includes former Senate Minority Leader Skin Edge, former Rep. Boyd Pettit and statehouse veteran Trip Martin, is on a six-month retainer at $12,500 a month. The Southeastern Resource Group, which includes former Senate leader and current Carrollton mayor Wayne Garner and former Rep. Charlie Watts, is on a $6,250 a month retainer that expires in November.

Combined, the cost is $143,750 this year.

Shelia Edwards, spokeswoman for the county, said DeKalb is getting new bids for state lobbyists.

Both the Municipal Association and the County Commissioners’ group said they register far more staffers than actually lobby full-time at the Capitol.

Amy Henderson of the Municipal Association and Clint Mueller with the Association County Commissioners each say they have four primary lobbyists at the Capitol.

Mueller said, “We were involved in so many bills because they introduced so many bills that affected local governments. We were really all over the place.”

Henderson said the dozens of tax bills filed this year especially had the local lobbyists hopping.

“There just seems to be a lot of legislation aimed at taking control of local government, so a lot of our lobbying effort surrounded that,” she said.

Lunsford filed legislation last year banning governments getting any taxpayer money from lobbying the General Assembly. The bill didn’t go anywhere, but Lunsford said he is serious about reducing the number of taxpayer-funded lobbyists.

“I don’t need UGA lobbyists to tell me what a wonderful school they have and that they need $7 billion in bonds,” Lunsford said.

House Higher Education Chairman Bill Hembree (R-Winston) agrees with that sentiment. “You have to ask yourself if it’s in the best interest of the state. Is it really necessary that you have a whole army of [government] lobbyists? I don’t think so.”

But Henderson from the Municipal Association said Lunsford’s bill would make it harder for cities and counties to respond to what the General Assembly is doing.

“To me, that is like telling a group of citizens they can’t petition their government,” she said. “It’s just a way of saying, ‘We don’t like you opposing us.’ “