IL governments spent $5 million to lobby the state
From Sunshine Review
April 21, 2008
In a first-of-its-kind-study, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform has learned that local governments and public agencies spent over $5 million for lobbyists in fiscal year 2007. The report, titled "Governments Lobbying State Government," was able to identify 110 units of government who contracted with lobbyists and 65 lobbying firms who worked for government entities. A number of the local governments had contracts with multiple firms for advice and activities lobbying the governor, state legislature and state officials.[1]
[edit] "Significant"
Responding to the report, Director of ICPR Cynthia Canary said, “This $5 million of public funds is significant, but it is a small portion of the tens of millions of dollars spent on lobbying by hundreds of corporations, labor unions and other special interest groups represented by lobbyists in Springfield. What the public doesn’t know is what special interests in the private sector are spending to try to pass or kill legislation and to impact actions in the executive branch."
“Through the Freedom of Information Act and the cooperation of dozens of public officials, we were able to research public spending on lobbying, but a change in state law is needed to mandate similar disclosure by the private sector.”[1]
The difference, of course, is that lobbying by local governments is paid for with taxpayer dollars, but Canary did not pass judgment, “Cities of all sizes, transit agencies, school districts and many other local governments have turned to professional lobbyists for a variety of reasons. ICPR leaves it to local taxpayers to determine whether the lobbying services were necessary and whether the fees paid to lobbyists were fair.”[1]
[edit] Findings
The report highlights a number of significant findings. Among them is the fact that, while the legislature was debating mass transit reform and funding, Chicago's mass transit agencies combined to spend nearly $700,000 on 14 lobbying firms. Of these, the Regional Transportation Authority spent $223,600 on four lobbying contracts, effectively putting them at the highest spending of all bodies that were studied. Following them was the Chicago Transit Authority with $220,173.
The group ran into several difficulties in the course of their research, including lobbying firms subcontracting with other lobbying firms, which can make it very hard to determine who is working for who. They also found a number of inconsistencies between information from local governments and lobbyist disclosure reports from the Secretary of State. Governments were found to report having lobbyists, but the lobbyists named did not report the governments as clients. Also, lobbyists were found listing governments as clients, but the governments denied having contracts with them.[1]
