Wednesday 1/24/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1169635050270840.xml&coll=2 – New report raises concerns about state’s waters.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070124/switch.shtml – Campaign disclosure report reveals that AEA gave Sen Phil Poole (D-Moundville) $10,000 the day before he switched sides in Senate leadership battle.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1169633850270840.xml&coll=2 – GOP selects nominee for House District 22, Dems may require runoff.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1169633763270840.xml&coll=2 – New poll shows most voters think state is on the right track.

http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1169634900270840.xml&coll=2 – The Birmingham News endorses proposal to increase daily rate paid to state’s foster parents.

http://www.al.com/opinion/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1169634439270940.xml&coll=3 – Press-Register calls for any vote for legislative pay raise to be recorded vote.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1169633990271140.xml&coll=1 – Riley pitches tax cut at Huntsville appearance.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1169633887271140.xml&coll=1 – Rep. Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery) criticizes racial makeup of new lt. governor’s staff.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/NEWS/701240346/1050/OPINION – The Gadsden Times calls for legislative action on proposal to ban PAC-to-PAC transfer.

http://www.politicalparlor.net/sanders-senate-sketches/senate-sketches-1025/ – “Senate Sketches,” Sen Hank Sanders’ weekly column to for his constituents.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/OPINION01/701240320/1012/OPINION – The Montgomery Advertiser says that a recorded vote is “key” to any action on proposed legislative pay raise.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/OPINION01/701230354/1012/OPINION – The Montgomery Advertiser proposes that ethics reform should prohibit elected officials from accepting any gifts from those attempting to influence votes.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070124/case.shtml – Group asks chief justice to recuse herself from Exxon case deliberations.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/NEWS/701240353/1007/NEWS02 – Experts says that state’s economy robust.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/APN/701242756 – Hurricane Katrina left out of Bush’s state of the union address.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

Lobbyists may outnumber legislators 4:1 in Alabama

MONTGOMERY — You could fill all 140 seats in the state Legislature with lobbyists and have enough left over to create a new state Senate.

What you can’t do is get a precise idea of how much those lobbyists are making and how much they’re spending on influencing the legislators.

Nearly 200 lobbyists already have registered this year with the State Ethics Commission. The number is expected to increase substantially before the Jan. 31 filing deadline.

The Commission registered 194 lobbyists through Monday, said Marie Malinowski, the chief of the Ethics Commission’s administrative division.

“We basically have a week and a half before the 31st,” she said. “So I imagine that number will double by the 31st, if not a little bit more.”

Alabama requires lobbyists to register by Jan. 31, or within 10 days of commencing lobbying activities. A total of 602 lobbyists registered with the state last year, according to the Ethics Commission, about four lobbyists for every state legislator.

By national standards, that ratio is low. A report released last month by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, said state legislatures average five lobbyists for every legislator. But Leah Rush, the CPI’s director of state projects, said Alabamians should be more concerned about Alabama’s weak lobbyist disclosure laws.

“The reporting requirements for lobbyists are very lax,” she said. “Pretty much every other state provides the public more information on lobbying.”

Alabama lobbyists must report expenditures of $250 or more on entertainment for legislators, but they can spend any amount less than that per day. In 2005, the CPI says, $1.16 billion was spent on lobbying in the 44 states that require full disclosure of spending. Alabama is not among those states.

Some states require lobbyists to disclose their annual salaries. Alabama does not. Rush said the salaries measure the investments businesses and organizations make in pushing favorable legislation through a legislature.

“That really shows how valuable lobbyists are to an organization to get agendas heard in a legislature,” she said. “When you put a price tag on the effort, it’s a pretty high one.”

Gov. Bob Riley has proposed legislation to require full annual disclosure of lobbyist spending. Tara Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the governor, said there is no current plan to add salary disclosure to the proposed requirement.

Lobbyists can represent a wide range of interests, from powerful utilities like Alabama Power to individual cities, and not all lobbyists are created equal.

Alabama Arise, which lobbies legislators on bills affecting poor Alabamians, has a $70,000 budget. Kimble Forrister, state coordinator of Alabama Arise, said that money is shepherded carefully. Alabama Arise dines legislators, but doesn’t wine them.

“We do a reception once a year, and we spend a lot of money on food for them at the reception,” he said. “But there’s no liquor. That’s (a) substantial (cost). It’s budgeted for $4,000.”

Bob Geddie, founder of Fine Geddie and Associates, a Montgomery firm that represented Exxon Mobil, Verizon, Mercedes-Benz and 51 other clients last year, wouldn’t say how much the firm spends.

“You incur costs when you have 15 people for dinner, or 20 people for dinner,” he said. “It depends on the issue.”

Forrister said the budgets make a big difference in what gets through the Legislature.

“When some groups are able to provide big banquets and field a team of six or eight lobbyists, they get a far different hearing than the groups with small budgets,” he said. “There have been times when I’ve seen a legislative committee ask each (lobbyist) to give testimony for three minutes, while one lobbyist gets 30 minutes. That raises concerns.”

Lobbyists often explain legislation to legislators, and seem to have that role in states like Alabama, where representatives are part-time and have no staff. However, the amount of staffing legislators in various states have does not reduce the amount of lobbying done in those states.

“It’s one of the things where they say, ‘OK, not only do they buy me lunch, they need to educate me on these issues,’” Rush said of Alabama’s situation. “That is a tricky situation, (whether to have) a professional level of staffing. But at the same time, do you really want someone hired to have a point of view telling legislators what or what not to do?”