New gift law for lobbyists doesn't bring full disclosure

By lowering the monetary threshold of reporting meals or gifts taken from lobbyists, Utah's 104 part-time legislators said that "transparency" was paramount in good government.

But an analysis by the Deseret News shows that even under the new law, three-fourths of all meals and gifts given to legislators this spring still don't carry the accepting legislators' names.

In other words, not much has changed in the shadow world of Capitol Hill in finding out who is taking meals and gifts from lobbyists, who make fine incomes trying to influence lawmakers' votes.

Senate Majority Assistant Whip Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, sponsor of the new law that took effect May 12, said that while more disclosure was a goal, "more important to me is less spending" on legislators by lobbyists. And Bell said he's been told "by legislators and lobbyists alike that spending is way down" because lawmakers don't want to be seen as taking as many gifts as years gone by. "I think the (new) law will have a big impact."

The newspaper's analysis of lobby reports (taking into account only gifts given after the new law's implementation date), shows that 75 percent of the money spent on lawmakers did not come with accepting lawmakers' names.

That is not much different than previous analysis by the newspaper on lobbyist giving. For example, the newspaper found that 80 percent of the gifts given to legislators in 2008 didn't carry the accepting legislators' names.

Of course one way to really cut down on gift-giving is just to ban it, like Rep. Chris Johnson, D-Salt Lake, and other lawmakers have proposed.

"Utahns have made it clear they don't want us taking gifts from lobbyists," Johnson said Tuesday. "If we tell our constituents we have adopted ethics changes — as we told them last session — we need to make substantial changes, not these superficial" efforts reflected in the new law's outcome, she added.

It's difficult to ascertain in some of the new reports exactly why the legislators weren't named. It appears that some lawmakers' names were excluded even though they may have accepted a meal exceeding the new $25 reporting level, or a gift exceeding the new $10 reporting level, or a sports, arts or recreational ticket. Any such ticket must have a lawmaker's name attached, regardless of the ticket's value.