Lobbyists spent almost $750,000 on lawmakers during session

<p>Lobbyists spent about three-quarters of a million dollars courting Georgia lawmakers during the General Assembly session, preliminary reports show.</p><p>For the first Legislature in a century under Republican control, the $745,432 lobbyists spent wining and dining lawmakers from January through March was about $110,000 more than last year, when power was split between Democrats who ran the House and Republicans who dominated the Senate.</p><p>Group functions to which all lawmakers were invited accounted for $166,000 of this year's spending during the session that ended March 31.</p><p>The remaining $580,000 was spent to feed individual lawmakers at eateries ranging from the moderately priced to the high end, and to entertain them in after-hours hospitality rooms or with tickets to NASCAR races, shows and basketball games.</p><p>The figures come from reports which lobbyists are required to file with the State Ethics Commission.</p><p>Chambers of Commerce, many of them teaming to work for passage of medical malpractice reform legislation, were among the biggest spenders of the session.</p><p>The Savannah Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce each placed in the top 10, collectively spending $94,373.</p><p>Georgia Power Co., which also worked for medical malpractice reform, was No. 2 on the top 10 list, spending $31,654.</p><p>"Basically what we follow is general business (legislation) that relates to us," said Georgia Power spokeswoman Lolita Browning.</p><p>The company's biggest single expenditure of the session was $3,393 to feed members of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee at the Capital City Club.</p><p>"For over 20 years we've hosted the committee for dinner, toward the end of the session, to thank them for their leadership," she said.</p><p>The utility also reported hosting several legislators, including House Speaker Glenn Richardson of Dallas and Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour of Snellville, for a NASCAR event last month.</p><p>Browning said the lawmakers were among a broad group of people, mostly non-legislators, who were invited to sit in Georgia Power's Sky Box.</p><p>Among individual lawmakers, Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, placed in the upper echelons for lobbyist spending with some 60 entries totaling $3,622. He is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.</p><p>Sens. Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton, and Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, also were in the upper ranks with $2,174 and $2,075 respectively. Hamrick chairs the Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions. Mullis is chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee.</p><p>Many of the meals and some of the gifts _ such as a MARTA bus and rail pass worth $52.50 provided to some lawmakers by the transit authority _ would have exceeded the $50 limit Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed imposing on lobbyist gifts to legislators.</p><p>Lawmakers stripped that provision from the governor's proposed ethics reform bill before approving other provisions of it on the last night of the session.</p><p>___</p><p>Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970.</p><p>___</p><p>On The Net</p><p>HASH(0x2863954)</p>

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