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2003 General Session
Until 1998, Wyoming was the only state that did not require any reporting of lobbyists' spending. In that year the Legislature passed a weak reporting law that requires reporting only of:
- legislative receptions;
- gifts to legislators worth more than $50;
- advertising intended to influence legislation (undefined).
Wyoming's part-time legislators have no personal staffs and thus rely heavily on lobbyists for information. The interests with the ability to field a lobbyist (or multiple lobbyists) have an advantage over those that do not.
HB 235 sought to strengthen the existing lobbyist reporting law by requiring lobbyists and their employers to report all lobbying expenditures - salaries and fees, telephone, hotels, meals, the lot.
Proponents of the bill argued that the current law presents the public with only a limited and skewed picture of lobbyists' spending. For example, organizations that give receptions for their members to meet legislators look like big spenders. On the other hand, organizations that do not hold receptions but have a lobbyist - or even multiple lobbyists - at the Capitol day in, day out, report nothing and are therefore invisible to the public.
Opponents argued that reporting all expenses invades lobbyists' privacy, particularly regarding reporting of salaries and fees. They also objected to the difficulty of keeping track of time and expenses, and that reporting certain expenses such as telephone involves too much "guesswork."
These objections easily could be met by allowing expenditures to be reported as a lump sum (to protect salary or fee information) and promulgating rules on how to allocate time and expenses. (Corporations and nonprofits already are required to track time and expenses under federal tax law.)
HB 235 died in the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, 0-9, after the committee passed an amendment (opposed only by the bill sponsor, Rep. L. Johnson) making the bill apply only to lobbyists (rather than lobbyists and the lobbyists' employers) and deleting salaries from the list of expenses to be reported. At that point the bill sponsor, co-sponsors and opponents all voted together to kill the bill.
For additional information, please refer to the "In-Depth Issue Reports" on The Wyoming LAP* Book home page.