Gift ban takes tiny step forward

Please, no gifts or Jazz seats. And thanks anyway for the offer of dinner and a rodeo.

Utah legislators could find themselves saying "no" more often to lobbyists under a measure a committee sent Wednesday to the full 75-member Utah House for a vote.

But just as in past years, the legislation, which fines lobbyists — but not legislators — $1,000 for violations, could be left slowly to die at the session's end, with the House or Senate ensuring its defeat by failing to act on it.

The measure's sponsor, House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake City, said he was encouraged by Gov. Jon Huntsman's ethics order last month for employees at state agencies and his call for the Legislature to follow suit. Huntsman's executive order bans gift-taking by agency workers and nepotism in hiring and contracts, and establishes a two-year cooling off period before state workers could lobby their former employer.

"I do not think it is appropriate for legislators to receive front-row, $500 seats to a Jazz game," Becker said shortly after The Salt Lake Tribune published a front-page photo of lawmakers at a pro basketball game. His measure would prohibit lobbyists from offering legislators any gift worth more than $5 — with 17 exceptions designed to meet lawmakers' practical concerns. They could accept any amount of funeral flowers, for instance, or take admission, food and beverage to an event where all legislators are invited.

Now lawmakers can accept anything of value, reported variously by lobbyists as Jazz and college football tickets, dinner cruises, golf and theater outings, jewelry, fine dining and trap shooting.

Lobbyists are required to report freebies worth more than $50 in periodic disclosures. But they can divide the cost of favors among them to avoid disclosure, or legislators can pick up part of the tab.

The Deseret Morning News recently calculated 86 percent of the gift-giving for legislators went unreported because of that loophole.

Still, the paper tallied $115,698 in disclosed gifts during 2006 for Utah's 104 part-time legislators.

"I think it harms our Legislature that the public has the perception were are unduly influenced," Becker told a House committee Wednesday. "Remove that taint over us."

The skepticism on the House Governmental Operations Committee showed why lawmakers don't want to be burdened with any rigid rules, though they voted 8-3 to endorse Becker's measure.