Last year state lawmakers debated how to limit meals, gifts and travel from lobbyists. Turns out, they’d already devised a way to keep receiving them.
Case in point: Republican legislators from the state House held their biennial retreat at the King and Prince Resort on Saint Simons Island last summer. And as in years past, powerful interest groups paid the freight, stroking large checks for food, drink and entertainment.
But instead of letting corporate lobbyists pay for thousands of dollars worth of food and drink, as it had in prior years, the House caucus solicited donations to its political action committee (PAC) and used that money to pay the bills.
“It is clearly money laundering to circumvent the ethics law,” said tea party activist Debbie Dooley, who was part of a coalition of groups that pushed for lobbying reforms. “It’s legal but they are taking advantage of the system. … They are thumbing their nose at what the people wanted.”
Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, treasurer of the Georgia House Republican Trust, said the change in operations was not meant to circumvent the 2013 limits on gifts from lobbyists.
“At the end of the day you are still going to have full disclosure of every expenditure,” he said. “If the goal is full transparency, you’re getting it.”
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