Wyoming needs complete lobbyist reporting

Public deserves more information about influence

By Dan Neal

Politics and public policy-making often come down to money and who has it to spend on candidates or on lobbyists that can help a interest group get what it wants.

In Wyoming, candidates for public office must report the contributions they receive and the expenditures they make. But lobbyists don't have to report many of their expenditures nor details about their funding resources. With Wyoming's lax lobbyist disclosure law, it's as if lobbyists simply appear in the Capitol without anyone spending any money to get them there.

On May 12, the Equality State Policy Center asked the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee to require professional lobbyists working in Wyoming as well as the companies and people who hire them to make public how much money they spend to influence state legislators and other policy-makers.

The request, by the way, implies no improper behavior. Lobbying done well with integrity fills a necessary role in a democracy.

Here’s the basic argument the ESPC made to the Joint Corporations Committee when it met earlier this month in Lander:

Why is reporting necessary?

• It demonstrates the importance of the work the Legislature does. A full accounting of lobbyist spending will show the general public how invested various interests are in the decisions made by the Legislature.

• Since individual state legislators do not have paid staff, lobbyists in Wyoming fulfill a particularly important role of providing citizen legislators with information. It is the presence of lobbyists that makes a difference. The public deserves to know what it takes to post a presence when the Legislature meets – in Cheyenne or during the interim.

• It is an important part of bringing the process of making state policy fully into the sunshine. People deserve to know what the oil industry, the coal companies, the railroads, and nonprofit organizations spend to influence their representatives and government officials.

• About 350 lobbyists registered in 2010. Existing law required only a very few to file reports, mostly to report receptions held for legislators. Many who file anyway report zero expenditures.

What is needed:

• People paid to lobby, including attorneys, should be required to report what they were paid and they should report their expenses.

• Employers of lobbyists should report how much they paid lobbyists and how much they spent on other activities intended to influence legislators, other officials, and the public to support or oppose legislation. (Current law requires reporting by the employers of lobbyists.)

• The law should cover both legislative and administrative lobbying.

• Lobbyists should file quarterly. (This provides a timely accounting.)

• Lobbyists should list clients, and how much each pays.

• They should list what bills and governmental actions were lobbied and for which client.

• Lobbyist reports should be subject to some form of enforcement mechanism.

The ESPC asked the Joint Corporations Committee that the reporting ultimately be made available in a searchable database available electronically via the Secretary of State’s website.

The committee showed considerable interest in the idea. Several, including Co-Chairman Cale Case, R-SD25, Lander and Rep. Kermit Brown, R-HD14, Laramie, asked pointed questions about lobbying by public interests, such as the University of Wyoming and other agencies.

The ESPC supports broad disclosure by all interests lobbying the Legislature. Even if they’re simply providing information at a committee meeting, state agencies and other public agencies certainly could be directed to report the cost of doing so.

When Sen. Case asked if the committee should entertain a motion to draft a bill, Sen. Charles Scott, R-SD30, Casper, objected, noting that the topic was not “noticed” on the committee agenda.

Instead, Sen. John Hastert, D-SD-13, Green River, made a request for the Legislative Service Office to research lobbyist disclosure in neighboring states and tell the committee how Wyoming’s disclosure requirements compare.

The topic is likely to appear on the agenda of the joint committee’s Sept. 28 - 29 in Casper.

A side note: Sen. Scott expressed considerable interest in determining who supports the ESPC and similar groups, saying he finds it difficult to determine who exactly they represent. He indicated he prefers disclosure legislation that would enable him to know the names of individuals who contribute to the ESPC and similar groups.

The ESPC does not provide that information, though people who do contribute funds to the ESPC certainly can make their support public. Still, the U.S. Constitution protects the right of people to associate freely. The ESPC told the committee that the right to maintain the privacy of contributor and membership lists was affirmed in a 1958 U.S. Supreme Court case, State of Alabama v. the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

But what the ESPC is, certainly is not a secret. The ESPC told the committee that the organizations that belong to its coalition are listed on the internet, along with brief biographies of the ESPC board officers and ESPC staff.

Sen. Scott asked the Legislative Service Office to research the law regarding protection of membership lists.

Legislature sets interim work

Better lobbyist disclosure on the agenda

Comprehensive lobbyist disclosure will help Wyoming people understand the value of the work done by the Wyoming Legislature. The issue will be among the topics considered by the Joint Corporations Committee over the next nine months.

The Legislative Management Council Thursday afternoon authorized the interim agendas for all 10 legislative standing committees and nine select committees. (Watch for it to show up on the Legislature's web site.)

The ESPC asked the Joint Corporations to take up fuller lobbyist disclosure because Wyoming's existing lobbyist disclosure laws may be the most lax in the nation. Lobbyists are required to disclose only four things:

• Their sources of funding (the company or group that pays them);
• Any loans, gifts, special discounts to legislators that exceed $50 in value;
• Special events held for legislators (usually receptions held during the winter sessions);
• The cost of advertising to influence legislation (thought with no definition of what that might be).
  

Several years ago, ExxonMobil flew in expert witnesses from Texas when it was trying to minimize it severance tax on gas produced by its operations in western Wyoming. But the company did not have to disclose how much it spent to do so. The ESPC believes the public would find such disclosure eye-opening.

But most lobbyists, including contract lobbyists who have client lists that include insurance companies, energy companies and utilities, disclose nothing because the law does not require it.

The ESPC will provide information about lobbyist disclosure laws in other states along with ideas for addressing issues specific to Wyoming when the Corporations committee meets to discuss the topic later this year.

Other topics of interest, including 'dog catching'

Along with the League of Women Voters, the ESPC asked the Select Committee on Legislative Technology and Process to determine how to record and make public more votes by legislators. Many committee votes and floor votes on amendments are not recorded. Recording them will keep legislators more accountable to their constituents.

The Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee will analyze "Railroad Contract Carriers" and predatory lending.

The railroad contract carriers study comes from an effort by union railroaders to get the Legislature to pass laws to regulate small passenger carriers, more explicitly, the vans that carry them to and from trains. Railroaders work shifts are limited under federal law. When the shift ends, they must stop the train. The contract carriers then run a crew out to the stopped train, a job called "dogcatching." The crew on the train trades places with the new crew in the van, then rides back to its terminal in the van.

Unfortunately, these vans escape federal regulation so there is no requirement that drivers be tested for drug or alcohol use (as the railroaders are) nor are the vans subject to mandatory inspections. Railroaders have reported riding with drivers so fatigued that they fell asleep at the wheel. Since the vans use public roadways, public safety is also a concern.

Cheyenne-based military officials say predatory lenders have become a problem for military families. Those small loans usually carry extraordinary interest rates that capture borrowers in a debt trap.

Focus on Family zeroes in on Wyoming

Expensive lobbying effort launched


SJ 2 proposes an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that would recognize marriages only between a man and a woman.
Marriage already is defined in Wyoming law as between a man and a woman, so this proposed amendment is aimed at gay marriages recognized in other states.
One might wonder how huge a problem this is in Wyoming, especially compared to issues such as 100,000 residents with no health insurance, a crippling lack of quality child care, or permanently disabled workers whose “benefits” leave them in poverty.
But apparently it’s a big problem, judging by the lobbying effort behind SJ 2. For the past week, residents in the five state senate districts whose senators comprise the Senate Education Committee have received calls from a calling center in the Midwest called “Advantage Research.”
The caller says that he or she has “an important message about marriage in Wyoming.” The caller claims that most people in Wyoming favor marriage as only between a man and a woman, and that a bill to give citizens a chance to vote on this concept has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
The script goes on to warn the recipient of the call that if the bill does not get out of committee, the chance for the people to vote on the issue will be lost. The caller then informs the recipient of the call that his or her senator is on this committee, and offers to patch the recipient through to the senator’s office to urge a “yes” vote.
This is interesting since Wyoming legislators do not have offices; apparently the call is patched through either to the Legislative Service Office or to the voter hotline.
Sarah Gorin, past chair of the Equality State Policy Center, received two calls about an hour apart, and asked each caller who was paying for the calling. On both occasions she was informed that the calling was financed by Focus on the Family Action, the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs.

Need for disclosure

Everyone has the right to lobby. The unfortunate aspect about what obviously is an expensive lobbying effort on SJ2 is that under Wyoming’s weak lobbyist reporting law, Wyoming people will not find out how much it cost because Focus on the Family Action is not required to report it.
Wyoming’s current law requires reporting only of gifts to legislators, the cost of receptions, and “advertising” intended to influence legislation, whatever that means. Any other lobbying expenses, including the resources needed to keep lobbyists chatting in legislators’ ears 24/7 in Cheyenne and between sessions, is invisible. It’s high time to adopt legislation that requires complete reporting of lobbyists’ expenditures.