House tightens gift rules, but the lunch is still free

Perhaps it could be called the free meal exception.

Monday, the Utah House passed a lobbyist gift bill that would require more disclosure of legislators who take gifts from lobbyists paid to influence them.

However, the GOP majority in the House exempted all meals up to $50 from the disclosure measure — a disappointment to the reform-minded lawmakers who want to curtail such gifts.

A Deseret Morning News examination of all gifts given to legislators in 2006, published last month, found that lobbyists paid for $67,196 worth of meals for the 104 part-time lawmakers — or on average $646 per legislator.

But by far most of those meals were less than $50, so lobbyists didn't name which legislators took the free meals. And continuation of that no-naming meal policy was specifically put into HB178 Monday, meaning that about half of all the money spent on legislators would not come with a legislator's name attached.

In morning floor action, when House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, the original sponsor of HB178, tried to make all meals fully reportable, most House Republicans (with Democratic Rep. James Gowans of Tooele) blocked his attempt — leaving what Becker termed a large loophole in legislative gift-taking reform.

So, as is now the case, legislators may continue taking meals less than $50 and their names would not be listed in the giving lobbyist's financial disclosure report. Claiming the new bill is "full disclosure" when half of all gifts would still be exempted from full disclosure is hardly a broad-sweeping reform, said Becker after the amended bill passed out of the House.

Still, the new HB178 — as changed by House Republicans — would require more reporting of a legislator's name in some cases.

The new bill also includes local and state government officials as lobbyists (they are exempt from that reporting now), and it contains a section that prohibits lobbyists from representing clients who have directly opposed stands — a so-called "conflict of interest" law for lobbyists.

Under current law, if a local mayor paid $45 for a legislator's round of golf, that wouldn't be reported at all. But under the new HB178, the mayor would have to file a report listing the legislator's name, the gift as golf and the $45 cost.

If the head of the Utah Department of Natural Resources took several legislators on a four-wheel-drive sightseeing tour (now not listed at all), that would be reported along with the legislators' names.

That change — government officials being listed as lobbyists — has been desired for some time, as a few legislators complained about government "lobbyist" activities that go unreported.