Spitzer to Challenge Right of Petition
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ALBANY – Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is scheduled to call today for banning lobbyists’ gifts to lawmakers and ending lobbying for government contracts, in a platform aimed at the heart of power politics in New York state government.
Mr. Spitzer’s testimony to a forum on changing lobbying laws, convened by the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying, also is to call for tougher penalties for violations of the rules governing the army of private sector lobbyists trying to influence all aspects of state spending.
“Because the problems are so fundamental, we cannot adopt timid or partial reforms,” Mr. Spitzer said. “Instead, the reforms must be bold and comprehensive.”
Mr. Spitzer, considered a likely Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, is scheduled to make the comments at an all-day forum in Albany, according to a statement obtained Friday.
The commission on lobbying is seeking comments from officials, good-government groups, and lobbyists on its own proposals. Those proposals include eliminating the current $75 limit on gifts to lawmakers by lobbyists and extending the commission’s jurisdiction to allow it to police attempts to influence contract awards. The commission is currently restricted to monitoring lobbying that influences legislation.
[The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizens the right to petition the government.]
The commission’s executive director, David Grandeau, said the proposals would force greater compliance by lobbyists in submitting disclosure forms on how much they spend and whom they seek to influence.
For example, Mr. Grandeau said the current $75 limit on individual gifts is arbitrary and hard to enforce. Instead, the commission calls for no limit but for strict compliance on disclosing gift-buying.
“Any time you have an artificial level, all you’re doing is providing loopholes and arbitrary measurements,” Mr. Grandeau said. “Let them give whatever they want. … When you know what you do today is going to be written about tomorrow, that is a much more effective means to stopping that behavior.”
But Mr. Spitzer called that “one of the most counterproductive proposals I have ever heard.”
“The public already believes that monied interests have an undue influence over government decision-making, and they want the existing practices reformed, not exacerbated,” the attorney general said.
The commission also recommends an extension of its authority to so-called procurement lobbying: the mostly unchecked spending of millions of dollars beyond the Legislature’s direct approval. That would require those lobbyists to show how much they are spending to influence specific officials in the executive branch.
The commission and Mr. Spitzer support extending the state Lobbying Act, which currently provides only for an of ten-extended temporary commission. They also agree on expanding the ban on lobbying retainers contingent on success, and on the need for stiffer penalties.
That, Mr. Grandeau said, has been a top legislative priority for the agency since 1986.
Mr. Spitzer, however, calls for a ban on such lobbying. A violation would disqualify the company from the contract. “When lobbyists circumvent established procedures, and seek to alter contracting decisions, it causes the public to question the fairness of the entire procurement process,” Mr. Spitzer said. “If bidders know that improper lobbying will cause them to lose a contract, they will not engage in such lobbying, and instead will spend their time and energy on submitting the best possible proposal.”
It’s not the first time Mr. Grandeau, the commission, and the commission’s attorney, Mr. Spitzer, have clashed over how aggressive or confrontational the commission should be in some cases.
The lobbying commission compiles required expenditure reports from registered lobbyists and investigates instances of unreported or underreported spending to influence state government. Lobbyists reported to the commission spending about $120 million in 2003.
Under Mr. Grandeau, the commission has levied fines of $75,000 against cigarette maker Philip Morris USA and against the New York Yankees and a fine of $250,000 against the developer Donald Trump and associates.