Instead, they amended watered-down versions of their spending weeks later.

The amended reports are now easy to spot because the Lieutenant Governor's Office, which oversees lobbyists, began marking any changes in red on its Web site accessible at www.utah.gov/lobbysearch.

"We kind of saw that there were lobbyists who would file before the deadline and then they would go in a month or two months later and make an amendment, some of them are big amendments," said Mark Thomas, special assistant in the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

The only three lobbyists to file an amended return for the period that covered the 2007 Legislative session work for the Tetris Group. Blaze Wharton, Paul Rogers and Dan Hartman represent dozens of companies and organizations including 1-800-Contacts, Diebold election systems, PacifiCorp and Sandy City.

They regularly take legislators to lunches and dinners and hand out Utah Jazz tickets. But most of the big-dollar items - meals over $50 and Jazz tickets - were not reported when they filed their reports at the March 8 deadline.

The omissions were not devious, Rogers said.

"There is no deception. We are just trying to be as accurate as we can be."

Rogers said the amendments were necessary because they had not yet received their American Express statement.

"We'd rather get the bill and make sure we did everything right than do it haphazardly," he said.

Rogers' original report failed to include Jazz tickets taken by Democrats Carl Duckworth and Neil Hansen, who are members of the House, and by five Senate leaders including Senate President John Valentine and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble.

The most recent disclosures were due Tuesday. Rogers amended his second-quarter report on Wednesday to include Jazz tickets once again provided to Valentine and Bramble.

Wharton left off a number of meals costing more than $50 provided to Democratic senators. His initial report showed $1,300 in spending. His amended report included $3,800 in legislator gifts.

Hartman's report ballooned from just $32 to $327 dollars, including Jazz tickets used by Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich.

These lobbyists have filed amended returns in the past but there is no trend. Rogers said the amendments this year may be an outcome of a change in the person who files the reports on their behalf.

"Sometimes the more thorough you are, the more scrutiny you bring on yourself," Rogers said.

mcanham@sltrib.com