From Deseret News archives:
Lobbying loophole lets some avoid list
Lawmakers pay enough to keep gifts under $50
But there's a new twist in the gift-giving and gift-taking: During an annual St. George post-legislative weekend, some of the legislators who attended the golfing trip picked up part of their green fees just enough out-of-pocket expenses so lobbyists don't have to list the legislators' names on their reports.
Several lobbyists who went on the March 3-5 weekend list green fees paid at $49.99.
Said one of the lobbyists: "You can't get a round of golf" for $49.99 at Washington County courses. And some of the legislators golfing with the lobbyists paid the difference so that the lawmakers didn't have to accept a $50 gift.
State law says if a registered lobbyist spends more than $50 a day on a legislator or executive branch employee, the gift-taker's name must be listed on the report.
Did the lobbyists pay $49.99 so the lawmakers' name wouldn't be listed?
A Senate committee this past session killed a bill that would have lowered the legislator-naming gift threshold to $10. And a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates found in January that 81 percent of Utahns want lobbyists' gifts to lawmakers banned altogether.
Riggs reported spending more than $441 on breakfasts, lunches and golf games for lawmakers but never exceeding the $50 limit. According to Riggs' report, he spent $49.99 on golf in St. George on March 3 and again on March 4.
Having legislators pick up part of their round of golf or expensive dinner is a new twist in what has become over the past decade the game of lobbyists entertaining some legislators without having to disclose the gift-takers' names.
Several years ago it was common practice for some lobbyists, working together, to split the cost of a Jazz ticket or round of golf, each taking half or a third of the cost to get each lobbyists' share under $50, and thus the legislator's name wouldn't be listed.
Legislators themselves changed lobbyist reporting rules to get around that "trick," as one legislator called it.
But now, if a legislator is willing to kick in some cash himself, there's another way around the naming law.
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