After a piece of ethics legislation gained no traction in the Senate, a Georgia House committee on Wednesday backed the measure to set new filing dates for campaigns and possibly increase how much Capitol lobbyists can spend wining and dining lawmakers.
The panel gutted Senate Bill 358, which would have removed Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger from the State Election Board and allowed that group to investigate him. Raffensberger has been the target of supporters of Donald Trump because he didn’t go along with the then-president’s bid to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
In its place, the House committee inserted a bill pushed by the State Ethics Commission that would standardize when candidates and political action committees file campaign disclosure reports — making them quarterly, like for federal candidates. It also would bring back in 2026 the requirement that local elected officials file campaign reports with the commission.
Local candidates once filed with the commission, but that changed a decade ago after they complained about the commission’s balky computer system and a staff in disarray.
One of the most eye-catching elements of the bill is that the cap on gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers could increase from $75 per meal or gift to likely $100 or so and could continue to go up, based on inflation.
The limit was set in the mid-2010s after years of stories about the expensive trips, ballgame tickets, meals and drinks that lobbyists provided to state lawmakers. One lawmaker, Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour, even earned the nickname “Donnie Ballgame” because he got so many sporting event tickets from lobbyists.
Members of the utility-regulating Public Service Commission were treated to trips, meals and other gifts as well from lobbyists for the companies they regulated. One PSC member asked a gas company lobbyist in 2012 to help arrange for his granddaughter to sing the national anthem at a Braves game. The lobbyist not only obliged but also bought him a ticket to the game.
So in 2013 the General Assembly passed a cap on a meal at $75 per lobbyist, per lawmaker. Lobbyists still pay for lawmakers to attend conferences — typically along the Georgia or Florida coast — during the spring and summer.
The 2013 law also exempted some of the biggest spenders from registering and disclosing what they spend: state employees. Lobbyists for the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and the Georgia World Congress Center were traditionally among the biggest spenders because they doled out football and basketball tickets to lawmakers.
The new Senate Bill 358 would not change that. But it would allow the Ethics Commission to increase spending limits by other lobbyists based on inflation.
Ethics Commission Executive Secretary David Emadi said the new limit would likely be $100 to start and the panel could adjust it in later years.
Rick Thompson, a member of the Ethics Commission, said the limit is somewhat meaningless because lobbyists find ways around it.
“Lobbyists are paying for the same amount of meal, but they are dividing it up among (several) people,” he said.
Lawmakers and their spouses are still sometimes treated to $200, $300 or more worth of wining and dining at a fancy Atlanta restaurant, but the cost is split by three or four lobbyists to keep it under the current cap of $75 per lobbyist.
“There is no true transparency,” Thompson said. “There are so many ways to get around it. Lobbyists will even tell you they don’t care what the limit is on how much they can spend.”
Thompson said the bill also should once again force state employees who lobby the General Assembly to report what they spend. “It absolutely is something that needs to happen.” he said.
The likely reason it won’t: Current law says registered lobbyists can’t hand out ballgame tickets. If, say, UGA’s lobbyists had to register, they couldn’t continue providing lawmakers with UGA football tickets, a decades-long tradition at the Capitol.
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