Thousands of state lawmakers from around the country will descend on Atlanta beginning today and you know what that means — a whole bunch of lobbyists will come, too.
The National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summit, which visits Atlanta this week, is a policy wonk’s dream. With an agenda heavy on the issues facing states, the week will feature esoteric panels like “State Premium and Retaliatory Taxes with Regard to the Business of Insurance,” and sessions on more conventional topics like health care reform and the impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
But it’s also a boon for lobbyists and other special interests advocates who buy dinners, sponsor receptions, take lawmakers to ballgames and museums. And, since most of the lawmakers are from elsewhere, the free food and entertainment is largely outside the prying eyes of voters back home.
Georgia legislators have enjoyed thousands of dollars in lobbyist gifts at NCSL conventions in Chicago last year and San Antonio, Texas in 2011, according to lobbyist disclosure reports filed with the state ethics commission. .
Most of the more than $10,000 in Georgia lobbyist spending in Chicago was for meals, including dinner for several legislators at the swanky Signature Room atop the famed John Hancock tower. Two lawmakers, Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, and House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, got to see the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati 5-3 at Wrigley Field. Cowsert’s ticket came compliments of AT&T, and O’Neal’s courtesy the Georgia Hospital Association.
In 2011, lobbyists spent more than $13,500 on Georgia lawmakers in Texas on lodging, riverboat tours, airfare and meals, according to the disclosures.
William T. Pound, NCSL’s executive director, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the non-partisan group knows there is great interest in having a large group of lawmakers in one place.
“All meetings are open, so anyone who registers can come in,” Pound said. “There are obviously people who are interested. I’m sure they take people out and pay for lunch or dinner or breakfast. The situation is we assume that they are cognizant of what the law is in the state the legislator [is from].”
In other words, Pound said, the onus is on the lobbyist – and, to a degree, the lawmaker — to make sure they follow the rules of their state.
State Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, said NCSL conferences are invaluable for lawmakers, and not just for the meals.
“They are as good as you want them to be,” said Harbin, who sits on NCSL’s Labor and Economic Development Committee. “You can learn what other states are doing. They allow you to meet other legislators. So many times we’re not re-inventing the wheel; a lot of times something has been done in other states.”
It’s “natural” that lobbyists would flock to the conferences, he said. “If they’ve got relationships in other states, they can work their issues,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me. That’s part of their job.”
One Georgia lobbyist who has traveled to NCSL conferences in the past said much the same. The lobbyist, who asked for anonymity due to company policy, said NCSL allows lobbyists from across the country to work on common issues and learn about best practices.
The fact that NCSL is in Atlanta this week means even more Georgia lobbyists will likely attend.
“From the last numbers I saw, there are a ton of Georgia legislators who are going to be there,” the lobbyist said. “’If you build it, they will come.’ Where the legislators are, the lobbyists are there.”
In addition to official conference social events — a visit to the Georgia Aquarium and a Braves game — outside groups will host a number of outings.
One national lobbyist organization, the State Government Affairs Council, will sponsor a late-night event at The Tabernacle music hall on Tuesday. Its website bills the event as a “great networking opportunity to meet other SGAC members, legislators from around the country and attendees of the NCSL meeting.”
Lobbyists and other special interest groups, including trade groups and major corporations, also sponsor hospitality suites at the downtown convention hotels.
Among those sponsoring booths in the exhibit hall at the Georgia World Congress Center are AT&T, the American Trucking Association, the Coca-Cola Co., the National Rifle Association and a whole host of heath care advocacy groups.
NCSL’s foundation, an affiliated non-profit “dedicated to improving public outreach and education and supporting ethics training,” is governed by a board that includes corporate and union executives, lawmakers, legislative aides and lobbyists. Georgia Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, a former NCSL president, is on the foundation board.
Among the sponsors, some of whom paid up to $25,000, are AT&T, Comcast, the National Education Association and Wal-mart. Sponsorship of the foundation buys access to NCSL meetings and to lawmakers throughout the year at other NCSL events.
Voters should be concerned about who is vying to influence their lawmakers at these types of national meetings, said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California.
Hanson, who has spoken to an NCSL conference in the past, said national meetings of lawmakers provide a “feeding frenzy of contacts between lobbyists and legislators.”
For lawmakers who are out of town at conventions, the “scrutiny of their behavior may be less than it otherwise would be,” Hanson said.
But, “the same concerns apply that apply at home — how much money do lobbyists spend entertaining legislators?” Hanson said.
Staff writer Kristina Torres contributed to this story.
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