Lobbyists do not have to disclose spending during session
As neighbor island legislators were making a last-minute push to require an environmental impact statement for the Hawai’i Superferry, the company launched a statewide direct mail campaign and advertising blitz that succeeded in defeating the bill.
But details of the public relations campaign, including the amounts spent on advertising, postage, media and lobbying fees, didn’t have to be disclosed while the Legislature was still in session and the information could have provided ammunition for EIS proponents.
The Superferry, along with the other 275 registered lobbyists and hundreds of organizations they represent, don’t have to publicly disclose what they spent to influence lawmakers until tomorrow. Expenditures that don’t show up on these reports, which cover the period from March 1 through April 30, won’t become public until the next report is due on Jan. 31, 2008.
The delayed reporting deadlines and apparent confusion over reporting requirements result in a lack of public information about even highly visible lobbying campaigns.
Hawai’i Superferry Inc. reported no lobbying-related spending between May 1 and Dec. 31, 2006, and just $2,261.78 paid to the company’s lobbyists during January and February of this year. The company also says it spent nothing to prepare lobbying materials or for advertising, telephones, postage, entertainment or other routine items.
But lobbying costs are supposed to be reported on an accrual rather than a cost basis, according to Dan Mollway, executive director of the State Ethics Commission. This means that expenses for all work done during the period should be reported even if the bills haven’t actually been paid.
‘We want to match reporting to the lobbying period as much as possible,’ Mollway says.
Mollway says his agency assumes lobbyists and their employers are complying with the law, and would typically investigate only if a valid complaint is received.
Hawai’i’s lobbying law was given a failing grade in a 2003 survey by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity. A number of other states require lobbyists to file monthly reports while the legislature is in session in order to provide the public with a means to check up on those influencing public policies, but in Hawai’i only a single report covering the early weeks of the session is available before lawmakers adjourn for the year.
Mollway says he would like to see more frequent and timely disclosure, but blames legislators for failing to act on ethics reforms.
‘Given the experience of recent years, it would be next to impossible to pass,’ Mollway says.
Lobbyist reports are available in the public records section of the State Ethics Commission web site, [www.hawaii.gov/ethics].
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