Lobbyists pick up tab
If plying legislators with food and drink didn’t deliver votes, lobbyists wouldn’t already have spent $500,000 this year to wine, dine and otherwise butter up key lawmakers.
Kansans see this unseemly transaction for what it is, even if the best-fed senators and representatives willfully do not. And the reported expenditures aren’t the half of it, because there is no required disclosure of lobbyists’ administrative overhead, housing costs or salaries.
The 549 registered lobbyists representing 1,650 groups in Kansas cannot donate to campaigns during the legislative session, but can provide unlimited food and drink for them.
“Free” food has become so prevalent at the Statehouse that it was cited as a big reason the Capitol snack bar soon may close. Don Wistuba, the beloved blind proprietor of the concessions stand for 39 years, told The Eagle’s Bryan Lowry: “I don’t sell enough product to cover costs. This year … we had to take up donations just to cover payroll costs because of all the free food.”
The complimentary $15 lunches and $66 prime rib dinners are only part of the shamelessness of influence peddling in Topeka, of course. Among other timely examples: Campaign fundraisers held by KanCare managed-care organization Amerigroup and co-hosted by the Kansas Bankers Association for the Republican members of the Senate committees overseeing health policy and banking regulation, respectively. And, following a pattern that flows both ways, the chiefs of staff of both the Senate president and House speaker resigned this year to become lobbyists.
As part of its 50-state scoring of open-government laws, the Sunlight Foundation recently gave Kansas a C for lobbying disclosure. The group noted that Kansas doesn’t require lobbyists to report small spending amounts or disclose how much they earn from clients, and that the information that is reported is too hard to access and search on the “clunky website” of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
There’s an ongoing legislative effort to illuminate or curb lobbying by local governments and school districts, but Kansas hasn’t changed lobbying law significantly in 15 years.
If legislative leaders wanted to set a higher bar for themselves and lobbyists, they could follow the model state of Wisconsin, for example, where anyone can pull up lobbyists’ names online and see which bills they support or oppose. And isn’t it time to require lobbyists to file their monthly reports to the Secretary of State’s Office electronically? About half still don’t.
Kansans should spend some time with the Kansas.com database of 2015 lobbyist spending and learn who has been feeding and entertaining their elected representatives and senators in Topeka. Ethics reform would make a worthy campaign issue next year.
Those who lobby say it’s about building relationships and educating lawmakers on issues. The legislators talk about it as gathering information from a variety of perspectives and relaxing after a stressful day.
Either way it’s about access and influence – which can lead to more the next time the lobbyist wants a word with a harried lawmaker. And those Kansans or causes without the cash to pick up the check aren’t at the table.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Lobbyists pick up tab."