In-depth coverage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has covered the push for ethics reform every step of the way with investigative reporting looking into how our public officials interact with lobbyists, where the system fails and how other states have done it better. As the Legislature wrestles with how to overhaul the system, the AJC will continue to provide in-depth coverage you will not find anywhere else.
House Bill 142
Where it started: House Speaker David Ralston introduced legislation last week to ban lobbyist gifts to individual lawmakers and toughen rules on who must register as a lobbyist. The registration requirement — which carried $320 in fees — upset some, such as tea party activists.
What happened Thursday: The bill passed a House subcommittee after some revisions, including lowering the total lobbyist registration fee to $25 and making an exception for people who visit lawmakers just a few days a year.
What's next: Some changes might still be on the way, and the bill will go to the full Rules Committee next week.
Responding to concerns that his original bill could stifle free speech, House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, on Thursday unveiled a revised ethics reform bill that would protect citizen interaction with lawmakers but still require some unpaid activists to register as lobbyists.
Ralston’s revisions to House Bill 142, which also bans lobbyist gifts to individual lawmakers, received its first positive vote when a subcommittee unanimously moved it along. The full Rules Committee will consider the bill next week. Some critics, however, continue to accuse Ralston of trying to intimidate citizen activists.
HB 142, as now written, would all but eliminate the fees charged to register as a lobbyist with the state ethics commission. The $320 in fees would be replaced only by a $25 charge to process the application and print a state badge.
But the new draft also now focuses exclusively on state officials, sparing local elected officials from the gift ban. Gov. Nathan Deal, in his State of the State speech last month, specifically urged lawmakers to apply any reforms to the local level, too.
Deal hasn’t changed his mind on the matter, spokesman Brian Robinson said.
“Gov. Deal expressed an opinion in the State of the State, and he still thinks that any gift ban should include local officials,” Robinson said.
Ralston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he still believes the gift ban should apply to local officials, but said “a lot of the noise seems to be about … the General Assembly, so rather than get distracted on doing the whole package, we’re going to go back to the original intent.”
Restrictions on local lobbying could still come, he said.
Ralston said he drafted the new version after criticism last week that the bill could require average citizens to register as lobbyists if they came to the Gold Dome and spoke to more than their own personal representatives.
“I’ve been around this place a long time,” Ralston said. “It never ceases to amaze me how much misconception and distortion can be created around legislation … by those who simply don’t want to be labeled as lobbyists even though they are.”
Ralston’s original bill was labeled a “First Amendment tax” by the tea party and Common Cause Georgia, two organizations that have advocated for an ethics overhaul.
“It was never my intent to make people pay a fee for people coming down here to see their own representative or own senator or if they come on a limited basis,” Ralston said. “Absolutely, that’s not the intent.”
Anyone who is paid to influence legislation or who does so for free on behalf of an organization would still have to register as a lobbyist under the revised bill. But members of professional groups, such as Realtors or nurses, who annually visit the Capitol en masse would not, unless they were under the Gold Dome for more than five days in a calendar year.
Anyone who is paid to influence legislators, however, would have to register, even if they only appeared at the Capitol for fewer than five days.
Ralston said he wants to essentially eliminate the lobbyist registration fee to remove the financial impediment for volunteer lobbyists. It creates an equal class for those who seek to influence legislators. The change will not affect the state ethics commission’s budget, he said.
“I don’t know how anyone can take exception to that, but someone will,” Ralston said. “I’m not asking anyone to commit an end of life act here. (I am) asking people to simply wear a badge if you’re here on a regular basis” and try to affect the outcome of legislation. “That is the heart and essence of a lobbyist.”
Count Debbie Dooley, state coordinator of the Georgia Tea Party Patriots, among those taking an exception.
“This is an attack on grass-roots organizations,” Dooley said after the subcommittee vote. “Many people are up here more than five days every legislative session. No other state around us penalizes grass-roots activists.”
But Dooley later said she was invited to meet with two top House Republicans about possible changes to the bill. Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, indicated during the meeting that there might be a way to exempt those grass-roots activists who register from having to file disclosure reports if they sign an affidavit vowing not to spend money on lawmakers.
William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, agreed with Dooley and said the bill is still “ridiculous.”
“It’s pretty clearly an attack on the tea party and … to silence the people who disagree with the speaker,” Perry said.
The majority of the new reforms were not changed from the original bill. Lobbyists would still be barred from buying meals or gifts or tickets for individual legislators, but could still spend unlimited amounts on specific groups of lawmakers, such as committees, subcommittees and some caucuses.
Travel costs for legislators could still be paid by lobbyists, while extracurricular activities such as golf outings would be banned.
The bill has too many loopholes to be effective, Perry said. The bill would not have barred Ralston from taking the $17,000 lobbyist-funded trip to Europe in 2010 that was the impetus for calls for reform, Perry said.
“There’s nothing in here that bans gifts,” he said.
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