Lobbyists spent more than $7,000 feeding Utah legislators in the past three months, as food once again makes up the overwhelming bulk of the money that went to wooing Utah lawmakers.
In all, about $10,000 had been reported in filings with the Lieutenant Governor's office Tuesday, with many of the biggest-spending lobbyists yet to submit their disclosures.
The gifts to legislators include a tent, two sleeping bags and a Dutch oven given to Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, by lobbyist Dave Nicponski. Waddoups used the $270 in camping equipment as prizes for a bingo game that donors played at a Western-themed Wagonmaster Fundraiser that Waddoups hosted last month at This Is The Place State Park.
"I went out and bought some camping equipment for the cause," Nicponski said.
Other gifts reported include a University of Utah football ticket for Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, and a Utah State University football ticket for Rep. Jack Draxler, R-Logan.
And plenty of food.
That includes a pair of dinners for Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, from tobacco giant Reynolds American while the senator was at a legislative conference in Atlanta. Niederhauser is chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, which defeated a tobacco tax increase last session.
All of those gifts would be banned under an ethics initiative that supporters are trying to get on the ballot next year.
"We just feel that legislators and lobbyists have a close enough relationship as it is, and there is a public perception that these kinds of perks and dinners and lunches and all of that stuff give lobbyists an advantage that the general public doesn't have," said David Irvine, an attorney and former legislator and lobbyist who helped craft the initiative.
Irvine said the same gift ban has been in effect for members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staffers for years and has proven workable.
Earlier this year, legislators passed new ethics legislation requiring lobbyists to disclose which lawmaker receives meals worth more than $25 -- dropping the reporting threshold from $50 -- and mandating more disclosure of tickets to sporting events, theatrical productions and other entertainment.
It left in place loopholes that exempt reporting if the meal is offered to the entire Legislature, a Democratic or Republican caucus, or an entire legislative committee.
As a result, thousands of dollars spent by lobbyists entertaining large groups of legislators are not reported.
