Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Agency thwarts lobbyist ban - with lobbyists' help

Nine of them, retained by Miami-Dade's Expressway Authority at a cost of more than $350,000, help kill county lawmakers' plan to prohibit such expenditures.

By LUCY MORGAN
Published May 9, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - How many lobbyists does it take to kill a bill?

For the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, the magic number was nine.

Angered over rising tolls and new tollbooths approved by the authority, Miami-Dade lawmakers wanted to restructure the authority, reduce its size and change the way members are appointed.

After an unsuccessful attempt to change the authority last year, lawmakers moved this year to prohibit the authority from hiring outside lobbyists. By attaching the measure to major transportation bills, Miami lawmakers thought they would either get the reforms approved this year or be back next year to fight an authority that couldn't hire teams of lobbyists.

So the authority did what everyone else in Tallahassee does - hired more lobbyists.

On March 8, a day after lawmakers arrived for their annual 60-day session, the authority coughed up $40,000 to add the services of a lobbying group headed by Alberto Cardenas, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

The authority was already spending $316,500 plus expenses on a lobbying team that included Fausto B. Gomez, a widely known Miami lobbyist, former U.S. Rep. Lawrence J. Smith and Yolanda Cash-Jackson.

Altogether the authority had nine lobbyists from four firms.

They aren't alone. Cities and counties are spending millions of dollars hiring outside lobbyists to influence lawmakers each year.

The added weight helped kill two massive transportation bills that included dozens of other measures affecting almost every area, including Tampa Bay.

"I don't know if we want to take credit for that," Cardenas said Monday. "But I don't think there was a lot of appetite in either chamber to change the governance of MDX (the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority) at this time."

Cardenas did say the authority members "got the message that they need to sit down with legislators and address their concerns in a constructive way - they (lawmakers) can feel they made their point with an exclamation point."

[Last modified May 9, 2006, 00:41:15]