About $4.2 million was spent on lobbying during the first two months of the 2015 General Assembly. In addition, businesses and organizations spent $574,000 on advertising in support or opposition to legislation pending before the legislature.
Under a law passed by the 2014 General Assembly, this is the first session in which employers are required to report lobbying-related advertising. While spending on lobbying this year is at about the same level as the first two months of the previous 30-day session in 2013, the new advertising reporting requirement provides more information on activities conducted in support of legislative lobbying.
Including spending on advertising, the top spenders for first two months of the session were: Anheuser-Busch Companies ($290,908, including $261,000 on advertising); American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network ($132,453, including $104,000 on advertising); and Kentuckians for Entrepreneurs & Growth (KEG) ($117,085, including $97,500 on advertising).
Other top spenders include: Altria Client Services ($92,199); Kentucky Beer Wholesalers ($75,837, including $50,000 on advertising); AT&T ($68,955, including $23,089 on advertising); Kentucky Chamber of Commerce ($64,840, including $4,477 on advertising); Kentucky Hospital Association ($60,842); Kentucky Retail Federation ($58,061, including $26,250 on “patch-through calls” from citizens to the legislative message center); Kentucky Medical Association ($40,196); BSB Coalition ($39,518, including $4,900 on advertising); Kentucky Bankers Association ($36,160); Kentuckians for the Commonwealth ($36,145); Anthem, Inc. ($34,000); Norton Healthcare ($32,500); and Kentucky Justice Association ($32,169).
Other two-month totals include: Kentucky LIFT ($29,620, including $2,618 on advertising); Kentucky League of Cities ($27,947, including $850 on advertising); Century Aluminum ($28,670); CSX ($27,929); Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives ($27,629); Home Builders Association of Kentucky ($26,606); Kentucky Association of School Administrators ($23,300); Kentucky Association of Manufacturers ($23,210); Baptist Health ($22,899); Molina Healthcare ($22,672);and Humana ($21,648). Hopcat-Lexington LLC, part of a Michigan-based restaurant chain which plans to open in downtown Lexington, registered on Feb. 23, and spent $20,000 in February to lobby on Senate Bill 81.
Spending totals for the 688 businesses and organizations registered to lobby are on KLEC’s website.
In the first two months of the 2015 General Assembly, lobbyists and their employers spent $84,000 on receptions, meals and events to which members of the General Assembly were invited. The most expensive event was the Feb. 10 Railroad Reception, which was held on railroad cars parked on Broadway in Frankfort. CSX Corp., Norfolk Southern Railway, and Paducah and Louisville Railway combined to spend $11,675 on that event.
In the first two months of the 2015 General Assembly, lobbyists and their employers spent $84,000 on receptions, meals and events to which members of the General Assembly were invited.
That same night, employers and lobbyists spent about $7,900 on “Louisville Night” at the Kentucky History Center, with contributions from Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District ($1,500); Louisville Regional Airport Authority ($1,500); University Health Care ($750); General Electric, Greater Louisville, Inc., and Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau ($475 each); and lesser amounts from Churchill Downs; Humana; J.P. Morgan Chase Bank; KentuckyOne Health; LG&E and KU Energy; Louisville Water Co.; United Parcel Service; and Yum! Brands.
On Feb. 24, Kentucky Coal Association and Kentucky Oil & Gas Association combined to spend $7,670 on the Energy Reception at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort; and Kentucky Cable Telecommunications Association spent $6,429 on its February 4th reception at the Capital Plaza Hotel.
In the first week of the session, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce ($4,092); AARP ($3,000); AT&T ($456); University Health Care ($350); and Kentucky Association of Realtors ($175) spent a total of $8,073 on “Chamber Day,” an event at Heritage Hall in Lexington.
Kentucky League of Cities spent $3,950 on a Feb. 11 City Night Reception at the Frankfort Convention Center; Kentucky Equine Education Alliance (KEEP) spent $2,520 on a Feb. 11 reception at the Capital Plaza Hotel; Kentucky Travel Industry Association spent $2,261 on a Feb. 12 luncheon in the Capitol Annex; Baptist Healthcare spent $2,149 on a reception at the History Center; and 16 insurance companies and their representatives spent $1,900 on February 9th at Frankfort’s Berry Hill Mansion for a dinner to which members of the Interim Joint Committee on Banking and Insurance were invited.
The 688 businesses and organizations and the 594 lobbyists (many representing multiple employers) who are registered with the Legislative Ethics Commission are required to file six spending reports per year, so citizens can see who is spending money to lobby the General Assembly and which public policy issues are being lobbied.
While a handful of reports may be a few days late, there is usually 100 percent compliance with the filing requirements, and about 2,700 reports are filed, most through a very simple filing system on the Commission’s website.
However, only one organization, International Sign Association and its lobbyist Kenneth Peskin, have repeatedly failed to file a required report, and in fact, both have failed to file since September 2014.
ISA is a trade association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and the organization has failed to file three consecutive lobbying spending reports. ISA represents manufacturers, users and suppliers of “on-premise signs” and in February 2014, the group registered to lobby in Kentucky on “billboard regulations that also impact on-premise signs.”
Regarding its 2014 lobbying in Kentucky, ISA claims on its website that “in states like Wisconsin, Kentucky and Colorado, we’ve defeated business-crushing legislation that would make it hard for sign companies to do business.”
Since ISA registered, David Hickey, ISA’s vice president for Government Relations, and lobbyist Peskin have failed on several occasions to comply with KRS 6.807, the Kentucky law requiring the filing of lobbying spending reports. ISA and Peskin were both late on half the filings due in 2014, and both paid fines for late filing. Now, both have failed to file lobbying reports due this year on Jan. 15, Feb. 15, and March 15.
KRS 6.807(7) states: “Any legislative agent or employer who fails to file the . . . updated registration statement, or who fails to remedy a deficiency in any filing in a timely manner, may be fined by the commission an amount not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per day, up to a maximum total fine of $1,000 without the necessity of a complaint being filed … .”
Additionally, if a complaint for noncompliance is filed against an employer or its lobbyist, and if the Commission conducts an adjudicatory proceeding and finds a violation, the commission may revoke the lobbying registration of the agent and the employer for up to five years. During that time, the lobbyist and employer would be prohibited from lobbying in Kentucky.
ISA and Peskin could each owe $1,000 for each of the three reports which have not been filed. Additionally, ISA and Peskin could be banned from lobbying in Kentucky for five years. ISA’s case will be pursued by the commission’s enforcement counsel.
Several businesses and organizations registered in the past month to lobby in the final weeks of the 2015 General Assembly and for the remainder of 2015. Those include: Alliance for Solar Choice; BJ Novelty; Child Care Advocates of Kentucky; Commonwealth Extracts LLC; Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund; Gateway Health; GEICO; Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association; KRM Wagering; Kentucky Creditors’ Rights Bar Association; Kentucky Wineries Association; Tantus Tobacco; UC Health; and Volunteers of America of Kentucky.
GlaxoSmithKline and Kentucky Consumer Credit Company, which were registered, recently terminated their registration and stopped lobbying in Kentucky.
Ethics Reporter is a publication of the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. It is reprinted with permission.