Governor calls for disclosure of lobbyist spending
Gov. Phil Bredesen, in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Friday, said he thinks lobbyists should be forced to report all expenditures on lawmakers — including where they meet and when, how much was spent and the topic of discussion.
The governor said he wasn’t pressing lawmakers to finish such a law this year, but he thinks lobbyist spending disclosures would reduce the influence of lobbyists and improve state government.
“I think that would transform the way business is done,” he said. “I think when they do that, it will make a real change in the way things happen.”
Bredesen compared the disclosure to the type of detailed financial reports political candidates have to file and are left open for public viewing. He said it just makes sense to require the same of lobbyists who are trying to influence state government.
Bredesen has already banned his staffers and officers from taking gifts from lobbyists under an executive order he signed shortly after taking office.
The Legislature has scheduled a last-minute committee hearing Tuesday on two lobbying disclosure laws, one backed by Republicans and the other backed by Democrats. Both have undergone a number of changes and likely face many more before they would be sent to the floor for full votes.
Leading lawmakers say the best chance for passing a disclosure law this session would probably not require a detailed accounting of expenditures. Instead, it would likely require lobbyists to report only the total amount they spend entertaining legislators.
Bredesen said he favors a more detailed accounting.
“I think there’s an ethic up here of the lobbyists provide the wherewithal for people to live the good life in Nashville,” he said. “There are some people who partake fully of this and others who have nothing to do with it.”
Tennessee Lobbyist Association chairman Mark Greene said they don’t oppose the idea of disclosing the total amount they each spend on their lobbying efforts. But the group has resisted proposals to force detailed disclosures or rules that would require them to list their salaries.
The governor said it would be better to pay lawmakers a little more than the $16,500 a year they earn as part-time legislators and at the same time reduce the influence of lobbyists.
“Tennessee always struck me as a state in which the lobbyists were especially influential,” said Bredesen, a former health care CEO. “There’s nothing wrong with a lobbyist … but I think some kind of squaring up at the corners of that relationship would be a good thing.”
The governor said lobbyists have an important role to play as lawmakers craft laws and get information from industries or groups that might be affected by the changes. But it could be done without the freebies, he said.
“Going to The Palm and having steaks and wine is a little different than calling on somebody and saying, ‘Look, I’m about to do a bill on logging, and I’d like to get the paper company’s perspective on the thing,'” he said.
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On the Net:
Read HB1137/SB0549, HB1133/SB535 and SB1251/HB1086 at http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/
See governor’s ethics rules at: http://www.state.tn.us/sos/pub/execorders/