Lobbying expense reports for the 2007 Montana Legislature are available online for downloading at: http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/
The final tab came to $6,000,555, according to reports filed with the state political practices commissioner's office.
The reports covered the state Legislature's 90-day regular session that ran from January through April and a five-day special session in May.
These advocacy groups, known as principals, use their staffs or hire people to serve as their lobbyists during the legislative session.
Lobbyists attempt to convince legislators to introduce the bills they want, inform lawmakers on the pros and cons of various bills, and persuade them to vote for or against certain bills.
In all, there were 450 principals, and they hired 530 lobbyists to influence the 150 state lawmakers.
Here are the 10 groups that spent the most during the Montana Legislature's 90-day regular session and five-day special session this year:
1. PPL Montana, $191,905.
2. MEA-MFT union, $147,403.
3. Benefis Healthcare, $123,030.
4. Montana Association of Realtors, $109,550.
5. Montana Quality Education Coalition, $107,641.
6. AARP Montana, $77,640.
7. Montana Association of Counties, $73,999.
8. State Auditor's Office, $73,799.
9. BP America/Atlantic Richfield, $60,000.
10. Southern Montana Generation and Transmission Cooperative, $59,278.
Figures from the political practices office showed that total spending on lobbying by principals was $6.1 million in 2005-2006 and $6.2 million in 2003-2004.
PPL Montana and MEA-MFT also ranked first and second in 2005-2006, spending $169,981 and $148,082, respectively. Also on the top 10 list then were Montana Association of Realtors and Montana Association of Counties.
Representatives of the biggest spenders make no apologies for their lobbying costs.
“We have major issues to protect a major investment in the state,” said David Hoffman, external affairs manager for PPL Montana. “We've got 500 jobs that we protect. The issues really span from water rights issues to water use issues to tax issues to environmental issues and general energy issues.”
Hoffman said PPL Montana officials “always err on the side of caution when it comes to reporting. We would tend to over-report than under-report.”
Eric Feaver, president of the MEA-MFT, a union that represents K-12, university system and state employees, defended the group's spending, saying he fully reports all costs.
“We work real hard at the Legislature,” Feaver said. “And lobbying all the bills that we do in public schools, higher education, state government and state employees takes a lot of time, and time is money. The primary cost of lobbying is the time you spent.”
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has made the influence of lobbyists on legislators an issue. He has pushed unsuccessfully for the Legislature to toughen lobbying laws and has criticized legislators' hobnobbing with lobbyists and “drinking old whiskey and eating thick steaks,” on lobbyists' tabs.
Schweitzer backed a bill this year that would have required lobbyists to report all entertainment expenses of $5 or more per expense, instead of the current $25 threshold. The bill failed to get out of committee.
Montana had no legislative lobbying disclosure law until voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative in 1980 to enact one. Some trade associations immediately challenged the law, but the Montana Supreme Court upheld the law and its reporting provisions.
Jonathan Motl, a Helena lawyer who has worked on lobbying and campaign finance issues since 1983, said, “My normal thought on Montana's lobbyist disclosure is that it's good that we have what we have.”
However, the current law doesn't necessarily reflect what many principals spend on lobbying, Motl said.
“What we have now is not fair lobbying reporting because there is a huge difference in the way principals report their lobbying costs,” Motl said. “The
$6 million doesn't really represent what was spent at the session. What was spent at the session was really far more that.”
Motl cited some Montana studies done in 1988, 1990 and 1992 that estimated only one-third of actual lobbying expenses were reported. He said he's unaware of any later studies and said it would be “completely speculative” to guess what percentage of real costs are actually reported.
“You're not getting it all,” Motl said. “It's not reported when a principle uses employees or when someone uses a noncontract lobbying entity.”
Montana's law “is better than nothing, but still it's only a portion of what's being spent,” Motl said.
Looking further at the reports, the biggest chunk of money - $4.9 million of the
$6 million spent - went to pay the lobbyists. PPL paid the most on lobbyists at $155,917, followed by the Montana Association of Realtors at $88,969, Benefis Healthcare at $69,176, MEA-MFT at $67,050 and the state Auditor's Office at $65,485.
The various businesses, unions, associations and groups spent $250,924 on entertainment to wine and dine legislators. Those spending the most on entertainment were the Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association with $8,800. The next highest were: NorthWestern Energy, $8,445: Benefis Healthcare, $7,721; Montana Tavern Association, $7,680; and PPL Montana, $7,510.
The reports are available online for downloading at: http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/.
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