Legislator tour starts today

For more than 15 years, the Legislature has visited — and in some cases, revisited — various areas of the state each August. Each visit has included two or more public hearings to allow local residents to ask lawmakers questions. But there will be no public hearings Wednesday or Thursday, even though this is the first time the Legislature has visited Davis and Salt Lake counties.

The Morning News has asked chamber officials and the government affairs group Exoro, which is helping organize the Salt Lake County tour for the chamber, for a list of donors and how much they contributed to the tour's $105,000 cost.

As of Tuesday, Beattie said the chamber is still soliciting donations. He said he doesn't want to give out any concrete contribution numbers, because chamber officials "may have to go back to some who gave and ask again" for additional money. So a list compiled now may well be inaccurate, he said.

Beattie did provide names of some donors and a range of their donations. The top category of $5,000 to $10,000 each includes Kennecott Land, Larry H. Miller, Zions Bank and EnergySolutions.

Beattie said that in recent years the chamber has conducted a number of special fund drives. The chamber pushed Proposition 3 in the 2006 elections. The proposal dedicated a special sales tax for transportation.

To pay for that public campaign, chamber members raised $700,000 in two weeks, Beattie said. So while the chamber does have considerable ability to raise funds, the members "are a bit sheepish" about going back to local businessmen and individuals and repeatedly asking for money for the chamber's various special projects.

Beattie also supplied the newspaper with a budget for the Salt Lake tour.

The biggest bite comes in "meals and breaks" — $25,500 for breakfast, lunch, dinner and breaks. A video presented on touring buses costs another $20,000; $15,000 is going toward "administration/coordination"; $10,000 is for the fund-raising itself; and $11,000 for briefing papers and other materials to be given to legislators.

Beattie said at a later date, after fund-raising for the tour is over, he sees "no problem" with releasing exactly how much donors gave to the legislative tour.

In recent years, those who have contributed to the annual legislative tour have wanted public credit so that lawmakers could see who had helped them out. Lobbyists for those donors may get a leg up in their work with legislators as well.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com