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New lobbyist laws will help -- in most cases

But no law will stop legislators and lobbyists who want to cozy up to each other from finding ways to do it.

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published December 12, 2005

Well, hush my mouth and weed my garden! Congratulations and thank you to Tom Lee, president of our state Senate, and Allan Bense, speaker of our state House.

Thanks to Bense and Lee, our Legislature just voted to make it illegal for its members to accept free food, booze, gifts or most anything else from lobbyists.

Thanks to Lee and Bense, the Legislature also voted to require lobbyists to report the income that they are paid from clients trying to influence the Legislature.

Florida just passed some of the strictest rules in the nation.

Surprising. Impressive.

Of course, it is important to be clear on what these new laws will NOT do.

They will not keep private interests from having influence in the Legislature. We'll still hear about the clout of the insurance lobby and the telephone companies. Big Sugar will still be Big.

These laws won't keep the Legislature from writing amendments for private benefit, or sneaking things into the budget.

Most important, these laws will not stop those legislators and lobbyists who WANT to cozy up to each other from finding other ways to do it.

The fact is, no "reform" law ever fixes our system for good. Money always finds a way to get to those politicians that want it. Fighting undue influence is a never-ending journey, not a destination.

Already, critics can point out obvious loopholes:

Lobbyists in Florida can still pour money into the political committees that some legislators operate, outfits with innocent-sounding names like "Committee for Good Government."

It still is legal to put money directly into the Democratic and Republican parties, which in recent years has been where the real action is. Why buy retail when you can buy wholesale?

Some lawmakers have their own charity organizations or events. Even if these charities are for a good cause, they also represent a way for lobbyists to pony up money and buy favor.

In the greater context of power and influence, the wining and dining of legislators by lobbyists has not been a cause by itself, but a symptom.

So, what good do these new laws do?

Plenty. As the old saying goes, treat the symptom, treat the disease. The less time lobbyists spend buying dinner and drinks, and the more they have argue the actual merits of their case in the Capitol, the better off Florida will be.

We throw the word "lobbyist" around a lot of times as if we were saying "criminal." I know I often have been guilty of using the word as a catch-all label for influence-peddler.

The truth is that most registered lobbyists in Tallahassee are honest professionals who are being paid simply to get their clients' story to the Legislature. Teachers have lobbyists. So do grocers, dentists, nurses and charities. So do newspapers.

The problem is not lobbyists per se, but that a few of them choose to trade in influence, campaign money and back-slapping instead of facts. A very few of them, on occasion, have bent or broken the law, and given the profession a bad name.

A lot of lobbyists would be relieved not to have to shell out money constantly as part of their job. Some of them wouldn't mind if we went further and banned their campaign contributions altogether. The way it works now, a lobbyist can hardly walk down Adams Street without being "invited" to another legislator's fund-raiser.

It is a two-way street.

A few legislators grumbled last week about the new rules. One warned that the Capitol would be littered with greasy brown lunch bags from lawmakers bringing their own lunch, although surely the Legislature has wastebaskets.

One of the complaints was fair, however. The typical lawmaker is allotted only $21 a day for meals while in Tallahassee. Wouldn't it be reasonable now to raise that figure considerably, in exchange for knowing that the taxpayers and not the lobbyists were picking up the dinner check?

[Last modified December 12, 2005, 18:30:16]