Perhaps it could be called the free meal exception.
Today, the Utah House passed a lobbyist gift bill that would require more disclosure of legislators who take gifts from lobbyists paid to influence them.
However, the GOP majority in the House exempted all meals up to $50 from the disclosure measure — a disappointment to the reform-minded lawmakers who want to curtail such gifts.
A Deseret Morning News examination of all gifts given to legislators in 2006, published last month, found that lobbyists paid for $67,196 worth of meals for the 104 part-time lawmakers — or on average $646 per legislator.
But by far most of those meals were less than $50, so lobbyists didn't name which legislators took the free meals. And continuation of that no-naming meal policy was specifically put into HB178 Monday, meaning that about half of all the money spent on legislators would not come with a legislator's name attached.
In morning floor action, when House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, the original sponsor of HB178, tried to make all meals fully reportable, most House Republicans (with Democratic Rep. James Gowans of Tooele) blocked his attempt — leaving what Becker termed a large loophole in legislative gift-taking reform.
So, as is now the case, legislators may continue taking meals less than $50 and their names would not be listed in the giving lobbyist's financial disclosure report. Claiming the new bill is "full disclosure" when half of all gifts would still be exempted from full disclosure is hardly a broad-sweeping reform, said Becker after the amended bill passed out of the House.
Still, the new HB178 — as changed by House Republicans — would require more reporting of a legislator's name in some cases.
The new bill also includes local and state government officials as lobbyists (they are exempt from that reporting now), and it contains a section that prohibits lobbyists from representing clients who have directly opposed stands — a so-called "conflict of interest" law for lobbyists.
Under current law, if a local mayor paid $45 for a legislator's round of golf, that wouldn't be reported at all. But under the new HB178, the mayor would have to file a report listing the legislator's name, the gift as golf and the $45 cost.
If the head of the Utah Department of Natural Resources took several legislators on a four-wheel-drive sightseeing tour (now not listed at all), that would be reported along with the legislators' names.
That change — government officials being listed as lobbyists — has been desired for some time, as a few legislators complained about government "lobbyist" activities that go unreported.
The revamped HB178 now goes to the Senate. But, as Becker points out, the Senate has failed to pass any so-called government reform measures in recent years. Senate GOP leaders said they have not looked at the new bill and had no comment on it.
As introduced, Becker's original HB178 was a gift ban bill. All kinds of gifts would be banned if they cost more than $5.
However, House Assistant Whip Brad Dee, R-Ogden, noted that Becker's bill had 17 exceptions. "And everyone will try to work around those disclosure" exceptions to still provide gifts to legislators, Dee said.
"Full disclosure of gifts" is a better way to go, said Dee, who had clearly lined up his GOP caucus' support for his substitute bill.
But as Becker countered, a large loophole remains by not including the hundreds of meals that individual legislators accept from all kinds groups. Becker's original bill would have banned most of those meals; Dee's substitute bill exempts most of them from being reported with legislators' names.
Some lawmakers, including Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, has said he considers eating a meal on a lobbyist's dime is part of doing his legislative work because he is giving his time to the lobbyist.
Each legislator is already paid $54 a day in per diem during the 45-day session, a nontaxable dollar amount provided by the state for things like meals and out-of-pocket expenses.
House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said that Becker's original HB178 was filled with problems.
He said no legislator runs or serves believing he'll make money. Instead, it costs legislators to serve. He added that one of his neighbors lobbies him on open space and trails. And if Becker's gift ban bill passed, he couldn't attend a traditional neighborhood Christmas party at her house because she is a lobbyist, and he couldn't accept a dinner from her.
Dee's amendments also change when and how lobbyists report. Under the substituted bill, lobbyists would not report 10 days after the Legislature ends, nor file a year-end report that includes all expenditures (and legislator's names, if need be).
Instead, lobbyists would file quarterly reports. But those reports would stand alone, and so there would not be one year-end report showing all giving and taking in a calendar year. Interested parties would have to add up all of a lobbyist's four reports to see how much he had given legislators during the year — a much more time consuming effort for media reporters or those challenging an incumbent legislator in his re-election.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com