The final day of the General Assembly session was a swirl of lawmaking, dealmaking and sandwich-making.
While lawmakers sweated out final passage of dozens of bills, lobbyists plied them with barbecue, biscuits, sweet tea and ice cream, spending $27,500 the final day to lead legislators to the trough. That final paroxysm of spending capped a session in which lobbyists reported spending nearly $1 million on legislators, their families and staff.
The final gavel ended the legislative session, but not the lobbyist spending. Business interests and pressure groups continue to seek favor, spending another $12,428 on state politicians, their spouses and staff in the last half of April.
A third of that money was spent on parties the day after the session ended. The rest went to lunches, golf outings and industry-sponsored junkets for select lawmakers who still have a lot of work to do this year, including redrawing legislative and congressional districts. They also may take another stab at tax reform.
Since the end of the session, the largest expenditure came from the lobbyist for Hometown Health, an organization representing more than 50 small and rural hospitals. Hometown Health spent more than $1,000 taking Rep. Butch Parrish and a legislative staffer to St. Simons Island to attend the group’s spring conference.
The first day of the meeting included a panel discussion featuring Parrish, R-Swainsboro. But he and the staffer stayed through the rest of the three-day conference. Records show a $55 charge for “golf” applied to Parrish the second day of the conference.
“I don’t look at it as a junket,” Parrish said. “They asked me to come and be a participant in their program, so I accepted. ... It’s interesting to talk with them and listen to the challenges they face and the issue they have with reimbursements from the state on Medicaid.”
Parrish, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health, was among the top recipients of lobbyist spending, accepting more than $5,500 in meals and gifts, according to lobbyists’ reports.
Comcast was a close second in money spent since the session with $977.75 spent on a dinner for nine lawmakers. Comcast was a big spender during the legislative session too, in part because the cable giant supported a proposed tax reform package that would have applied sales tax to satellite television providers for the first time. Comcast competes against satellite TV companies.
Tax reform may be back on the agenda for the planned redistricting session this summer.
Anthony Nownes, University of Tennessee political science professor and author of “Total Lobbying,” said lobbyists are unlikely to affect lawmakers’ opinions on such issues as abortion or gay rights. But on softer, more technical questions, like who gets a tax break or whether a law affecting a specific industry should be changed, lobbyists have a better chance to convince legislators.
“If you really haven’t thought about it much and don’t have an ideological position beforehand, you are open to persuasion,” Nownes said.
He said there is not a lot of evidence that meals, tickets and outings provided by lobbyists have a direct impact on votes, but they do provide a unique level of access.
“Let’s face it: It’s access that the rest of us don’t have,” he said.
Rusty Underwood, a lobbyist for the chemical and plastics industries, said the level of access that lobbyists have to legislators is not a bad thing. Virtually every Georgian has a lobbyist at the Capitol representing them, he said.
“What people don’t realize is that in some way the lobbyists are their voice,” he said. “Someone is representing your interests. If you are a farmer, there’s the Farm Bureau. If you are a teacher there’s the [Georgia Association of Educators].”
Underwood is part of an effort to organize Georgia lobbyists into a trade association to improve their image, in part by adopting a code of ethics. The group has about 80 members and will hold its first board meeting this month, he said.
Underwood said the culture of meals and outings is comparable to the relationships built between salesmen and clients.
“They pick on us making it look like we are doing something evil when it really is part of the business relationship,” he said. “We disclose that. We put it out there and let them know, and people can draw different conclusions from that.”
Underwood said he believes the spending has little impact on the process.
“I had two dozen of my closest friends vote against my bill because they didn’t like my bill,” he said.
A coalition of groups including Common Cause and the Georgia Tea Party Patriots is lobbying for tougher ethics laws, including a $100 cap on individual gifts. Common Cause executive director William Perry scoffed at the suggestion that meals, trips and gifts do not sway votes. But he said he is willing to put it to the test.
“They need to put the money where their mouth is and pass limits,” he said. “If it has no effect, then it should be pretty easy to give it up and reduce the cynicism about their work.”
Despite the unpopularity of lobbyist spending among voters, Nownes said lobbying reforms are difficult to achieve.
Politicians, he said, simply like the perks too much.
“That’s why lawmakers despite what the public wants are loath to get rid of it. It’s fun,” he said. “Instead of sitting in your office listening to a lobbyist, you go play golf.”
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