Gifts flow to Utah lawmakers

Utah lobbyists, corporations, trade associations and public colleges spent more than $136,000 last year on legislators and other top public officials, year-end lobbyist filings show.

The gift-taking reports come as a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows two out of three Utahns want those gifts banned.

Nearly all of the lobbyist spending is for meals, tickets to Utah Jazz games, concerts and other events.

But for the first time in years, two House members took trips that were paid for by trade groups. One lawmaker went to a National Education Association conference in San Diego paid for by the Utah Education Association; while the Rural Water Association paid for another lawmaker to go to Washington, D.C., to visit Utah's congressional delegation.

Micron lobbyist Stan Lockhart, who is also the husband of Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, once again is the king of Jazz tickets. Micron leases a luxury box at the Delta Center, and during 2003 Stan Lockhart spent $12,065.26 entertaining and feeding lawmakers, $10,000 going to Jazz tickets. Stan Lockhart also listed 90 separate breakfasts, lunches and dinners for legislators that he paid for.

Dozens of legislators took Micron's Jazz tickets. Some of the bigger users: Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, who ran for Ogden mayor last year, $1,680; Rep. Brad Last, R-St. George, $1,120; Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, $800; and Rep. Neal Hendrickson, D-West Valley; and Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, both $640.

As has been the case in most legislatures in recent years, an attempt will again be made in the 2004 session, which starts Monday, to further restrict lobbyist gifts to lawmakers.

Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, has seen his previous bills and resolutions die in the Senate, if they were even passed in the House. So this year, Becker, former Democratic House leader, is proposing a new House rule that would ban all gifts to lawmakers valued at more than $15. Since the rule applies only to the House, senators won't get a chance to kill it.

"There's a perception in the public — as reflected by (Deseret Morning News) polling over the years — that we are unduly influenced by gifts and perks offered by lobbyists," Becker said. "And that's unfortunate.

"It's incumbent on us to build the public trust. And by having lobbyists be allowed to give us gifts of any significant size, it degrades the public opinion of us individually and the institution of the Legislature as a whole."