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Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 | 4:04 p.m.
Sun coverage
All lobbyists at the 2013 Legislature will be required for the first time to attend a training course before they can present their case or try to influence lawmakers.
The Legislative Commission has adopted a rule making it mandatory. In the past, it was voluntary.
“Basically, it’s an ethics thing,” ordered by the leadership in the Legislature, said Rick Combs, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. It will deal what can and cannot be done in dealing with lawmakers, he said.
Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, a member of the commission, said the legal staff of the Legislature will review ethical behavior, financial reporting and “general professionalism.”
He said there were problems in the past session with lobbyists reporting their expenditures on time.
Lobbyists can attend the two-hour class or certify they have watched a video of the training. The Legislature will ask that lawyers-lobbyists be allowed to use this training to fulfill part of their annual continuing legal education.
The training session will be Jan. 9.
As of Friday, 99 paid lobbyists and 23 unpaid lobbyists have registered. The numbers are expected to increase substantially as the Legislature's Feb. 4 start date nears. At the 2011 Legislature, there were more than 300 paid and unpaid lobbyists.
In 2011, the registration fee for a paid lobbyist was increased from $100 to $300, but the unpaid lobbyist fee remained $20.
Besides adopting the mandatory training for lobbyists, the Legislative Commission last week approved a budget of $56.6 million for the coming two fiscal years. That’s 0.4 percent lower than the current biennium and 4.9 percent below the 2009-11 spending.
Combs said the commission followed the direction of Gov. Brian Sandoval to present a flat budget for the next biennium. The proposed budget does not include restoration of the cut in pay and benefits for legislative workers.
The budget does not include any state money for out-of-state travel for lawmakers, which has been the case since the 2009-11 biennium.
Budget savings have been achieved by leaving 31 jobs vacant in the current program. Some of those will be filled by shifting money from other areas.
In addition, Combs will submit a second bill asking for $775,000 to pay dues to such organizations as the National Conferences of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Education Commission of the States.
The bill also will ask for $1 million for one-time building maintenance and information technology purchases.
Combs said these proposed spending bills are submitted for inclusion in the executive budget, which will be reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.
Two hours! I suggest that video be made public so the public knows what is contained in it.
Does it prohibit lobbyists from writing legislation or providing templates of legislation?
Peacelily, the majority of the 2 hour class or video will be about how to turn in your lobbyist monthly expense report by the 10th day of the next month under penalty of perjury apparently not). Since most of the Legislators are too stupid to write ant legislation or even communicate to the Legislative Council Bureau what legislation that they want drafted for discussion or revised per that days committee hearings, it is usually the default responsibility of the lobbyists to draft proposed legislation before 8:30AM and return it to their sponsoring Legislator. This elected official will have the document explained to them, and plans will be made for the lobbyist to testify in favor of it, making the Legislator look smart in hearings.
The legislators are not qualified in almost every case, so the lobbyists teach them in a way that will benefit their special interest.
I understand the comments about our incompetent legislators and the power of the lobbyists.
It makes me want to vomit!!!
This is not representing the people, it is representing the special interest the lobbyists work for.
Our political system needs serious reform!
It is not okay for the State to appropriate $775,000 to organizations such as The American Legislative Exchange Counsil (ALEC) so that corporations can draft legislation and hand it to the legislators to pass so that the corporations can benefit.
This is not part of our democratic process. It is not democracy when corporations, for their own benefit, draft legislation and then pay the legislators to pass that legislation.
I, as a taxpayer, do not want to pay for ALEC to destroy our democracy!
"In 2011, the registration fee for a paid lobbyist was increased from $100 to $300, but the unpaid lobbyist fee remained $20."
Why are unpaid lobbyists required to pay anything while the fatcats pay less than what amounts to walking around money?
I suspect this registration fee chills the exercise of what our Constitution promises in Article 1, Section 4: "The people shall have the right freely to assemble together to consult for the common good, to instruct their representatives and to petition the Legislature for redress of Grievances." Like so many other protected freedoms the state has attached a price tag as a pre-condition of exercise!
"Indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the State's hostility to it." -- United States v. Penn, 647 F.2d 876 (9th Circuit, 1980), Judge Kennedy dissenting