Lobbyists Spend Millions Trying To Influence TX Lawmakers

AUSTIN (AP) – Lobbyists have spent millions of dollars in the last four years in efforts to influence Texas lawmakers and other state workers, which included meals, golf excursions and trips to a Ritz-Carlton lodge in Georgia and a resort in British Columbia, a review by the Houston Chronicle has found.

Texas Ethics Commission records show that lobbyists spent at least $12.5 million over the last four years, with more than $3.5 million spent directly on state senators and representatives and another $3.8 million on lawmakers’ staffs, the newspaper found.

The Chronicle obtained the data under state open-record laws.

Most of the contact between lawmakers and lobbyists is not reported. Instead, lobbyists typically only have to report aggregate totals of their spending without state officials’ names.

However, lobbyists sometimes host events that require details, providing an insight into the perks afforded some lawmakers and legislative efforts that followed the perks.

In November 2006, for example, the Texas Council of Engineering Companies spent more than $10,000 flying several lawmakers to the Ritz-Carlton Lodge in Greensboro, Ga.

The four-day “public affairs” conference included seminars and meals in which lawmakers say they discussed state policy with council members, many of whom own large construction companies with interests in government road, building and water construction projects.

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, who spent at least three days at the resort, received free lodging and transportation and at least $400 in food and beverages, the Chronicle found.

A few months after the conference, Williams, a financial adviser, sponsored several bills affecting engineers during the 2007 legislative session, including one law that exempted them from liability for work performed during a government-declared natural disaster.

After the session ended, the engineering association highlighted at least four bills carried by Williams in a memo on new legislation affecting its members.

Williams’ chief of staff, Janet Stieben, said the engineering legislation was a reaction to Hurricane Rita, which struck the Gulf Coast in September 2005, not the meeting in Georgia.

“I don’t think you could correlate specifically from the convention,” she told the Chronicle. “It comes from many different sources.”

The following summer, the engineers’ lobbyist, Steve Stagner, spent nearly $15,000 to send several lawmakers to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Resort in British Columbia, Canada. Stagner reported spending an estimated $3,000 apiece on the members for the trip.

In exchange for speaking, the officials each received food and beverages worth between $450 and $600. They also received two golf outings, each valued at between $100 and $150, according to the reports.

State Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, who was one of the lawmakers attending the event in Canada, defended the trip as a chance for members to mix with one another and talk to industry leaders who have a stake in state policy.

“Our top priority is to represent our districts, and the lobby situation is a two-way street,” he said, noting that he might discuss policy with AT&T at one event while also hearing from rival Time Warner Cable. “The lobby does have a function, and that is information.”

State law generally bans lobbyists from paying for members’ travel, except for fact-finding trips or for conferences, seminars or educational events where members “render services,” such as addressing an audience.

“We’re just trying to follow the law like anyone else,” Stagner said. “If they change the law, then we won’t do it.”

Lobbyists file public reports to document their spending. But, unlike the conferences, specific details about most lobbying activities typically are not available, nor is there a searchable online database on what information is public.

State ethics laws in most cases require lobbyists only to report monthly spending totals, rather than detailed listings of members and officials who benefited from meals, drinks, entertainment, gifts and trips.

Since 2005, for example, lobbyists have spent more than $7 million on food and beverages in an effort to influence state policy, records show. But only a small percentage of those meals are documented.

Lawmakers changed the lobby rules in 2003, increasing the amount that would require disclosure of their names. Previously, a meal costing more than $50 would land a legislator’s name in the public record. Now, that threshold is 60 percent of a lawmakers’ per diem allowance, or about $100.

“There should be a lot more detail that is required to be presented,” said Fred Lewis, an Austin lawyer and ethics reform advocate. “That information should be recorded and presented to the public.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)