Constitutional Law

Ga. lobbyists will have to report on wining and dining

By By The Associated Press

ATLANTA ? Georgians will be able to keep closer tabs on what lobbyists spend wining and dining state lawmakers. But new ethics legislation set to take effect Jan. 1 doesn't set a limit on what those lobbyists can spend.

Reeling from a sex-and-lobbying scandal that toppled Georgia's powerful House speaker, state legislators earlier this year ushered through what they touted as a sweeping ethics-reform package.

But watchdogs say that although the new law makes some needed improvements ? such as requiring lobbyists to disclose expenses more frequently ? it fails to tackle some of the more pressing ethical issues that have dogged Georgia.

Common Cause Georgia pushed to include caps on what lobbyists can spend in entertaining public officials. The group also sought to ban, or at least limit, the transfer of campaign funds between political action committees, a popular way to disguise who is giving to a candidate.

But neither made it into the bill signed into law in the spring by Gov. Sonny Perdue. Alabama recently adopted both as part of a wide-ranging ethics-reform package in that scandal-plagued state.

Georgia House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, a key Republican lawmaker, said he would try again in the coming year to cap lobbyist gifts.

But he could face pushback from House Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson, who said such limits would simply force lobbyists to go underground so the public would have no accounting of their actions.

"Our philosophy is full, open and immediate disclosure," the Sandy Springs Republican said.

Perhaps the most significant change in the new ethics rules is one that has received little notice: A new provision requiring candidates for local office to report campaign contributions and expenditures through the state's electronic system.

"That is the best thing in there but it's also really the only significant thing in there," said Bill Bozarth, the head of Georgia's Common Cause branch. He said the change would provide uniformity to what has otherwise been a patchwork of county reports that have often been difficult to access.

Bozarth said parts of the bill mark a step backward, such as a provision that allows attorneys fees to be awarded if a complaint is found to be frivolous. He said that could have a chilling effect, discouraging members of the public from filing complaints.

Rick Thompson, former executive secretary of the state Ethics Commission, called the new law "a very good step in the right direction" and urged lawmakers to give the new rules time to work before considering any more changes.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on December 26, 2010 (boomark / email).