The Georgia House Tuesday closed a loophole in state ethics law regarding lobbyist spending on state employees.
The House voted 162-8 to amend a Senate bill that makes clear lobbyists must disclose it when they spend money on public employees.
The language was first added by the House Governmental Affairs Committee to Senate Bill 160, which would allow employees of utility companies to make campaign contributions.
"We believe very strongly given that Georgia has worked so hard to have a strong public disclosure requirement that this fix is necessary," House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, told the committee.
The change has the backing of House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who last week said he was not sure the law ever required this level of disclosure and that he was unsure there was time this year to make a fix.
The loophole became an issue last week after the state ethics commission said in an advisory opinion that state law requires lobbyists to disclose when they spend money on a public official's family but not when they spend it on an employee.
The opinion was requested by attorney Douglas Chalmers on behalf of his client, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in February that a lobbyist spent $17,000 to take Ralston, his aide and parts of their families to Europe on a fact-finding trip. The trip was divulged in the lobbyist's disclosure report filed with the ethics commission.
The new version of SB 160 says that lobbyists must disclose it if they spend money on a "public employee for the purpose of influencing a public officer."
The term "public employee" is defined in state law to include "every person employed by the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of state government, or any department, board, bureau, agency, commission, or authority thereof."
Lindsey said the phrase "for the purpose of influencing a public officer" also comes from existing law.
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, an Atlanta Democrat who supports the amendment, but not SB 160, said Ralston's influence was welcome. Oliver submitted a near identical amendment Monday, but it was rejected.
She, like a handful of opponents of SB 160 who surfaced Tuesday, supports the amendment requiring more transparency on lobbyists spending. But she also opposes the underlying bill allowing utility company employees to contribute to political campaigns.
"I am happy that something good will trail on 160," Oliver said.
William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, echoed Oliver.
"We have a good amendment to a bad bill, so it's a right pew, wrong church-type situation," Perry said. Common Cause and other organizations that make up the Georgia Alliance for Ethics Reform called on the Legislature last week to make the fix.
The bill must still return to the Senate, which must agree to the changes. SB 160's sponsor, Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, said he supports the amendment.
"It needed to be done," Balfour said.
Staff Writers Christopher Quinn and April Hunt contributed to this report.
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