Our Opinion: Gift ban appeal
Aug 6, 2009
The silliness remains unchallenged
A Florida lobbyist association has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a review of Florida’s ban on gifts – not even a free cup of coffee is OK – to legislators. But the appeal is really about the law’s requirement that lobbyists broadly report their compensation.
It will be a long shot, getting the high court to take a look at what Florida’s Supreme Court upheld in March by tying it to another lower-court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. (That’s a case having to do with “electioneering communications” and a movie about Hillary Clinton that a political group didn’t want to be shown just before the 2008 primary elections.)
The Florida high court unanimously ruled that the 2005 so-called gift-ban law is legitimate in requiring quarterly financial reporting of fees paid by clients of lobbying firms and allowing the Legislature to impose penalties – up to $5,000 and prohibition from lobbying – for noncompliance. No free-speech infringements were noted from just revealing how much you’re paid to speak up, to lobby.
Leon County and Tallahassee city officials have sought to overturn the sillier portions of the gift ban law, saying they hurt the entertainment business here. State Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, last session tried to relax the ban and at least allow $20 to be spent on a lawmaker. We supported the effort to allow nominal spending, to get rid of the silliness, but it went nowhere. That’s regrettable, and the bill still should be amended to be more sensible in this regard. But lawmakers, their staffs and legislative visitors are still eating three meals a day regardless of who pays, so there has been some adjustment to the new reality.
Some lobbyists protest that the gift-ban law is window dressing, given that there are plenty of ways to give far more persuasive amounts of money to legislators through campaign accounts that are perfectly legal – if not always ethical, depending upon who is doing the giving and the taking.
But as with all ethics legislation, the appearance of propriety is very important and a deterrent to blatant behaviors that turn voters into lifelong cynics.
A U.S. District judge has ruled that free speech isn’t violated when lobbyists are required to disclose their compensation – some $45 million was earned just from January through March of this year among lobbyists operating in Tallahassee, according to a St. Petersburg Times-Miami Herald report by Mary Ellen Klas. It was about the same in 2008, before the recession; lobbying is still a good business.
The ban is extreme in its prohibition of even a cup of coffee, but the message it sends is important for public trust, which is not exactly at a pinnacle. And it also has the virtue of freeing lobbyists from the grasp of legislators who are perhaps more than ready to be the recipient of any and all largess regardless of the perceptions that leaves behind.
No one knows if there is a direct quid pro quo between a fancy dinner and a vote, but unfettered coziness leaves plenty of room for speculation, just or unjust. A gift ban law is a sound idea and, despite this last-ditch challenge to get it turned around, lobbyists, legislators and businesses have learned to live with it. To overturn it now would send a message that, in Florida, anything goes.
But as with all ethics legislation, the appearance of propriety is very important and a deterrent to blatant behaviors that turn voters into lifelong cynics.
A U.S. District judge has ruled that free speech isn’t violated when lobbyists are required to disclose their compensation – some $45 million was earned just from January through March of this year among lobbyists operating in Tallahassee, according to a St. Petersburg Times-Miami Herald report by Mary Ellen Klas. It was about the same in 2008, before the recession; lobbying is still a good business.
The ban is extreme in its prohibition of even a cup of coffee, but the message it sends is important for public trust, which is not exactly at a pinnacle. And it also has the virtue of freeing lobbyists from the grasp of legislators who are perhaps more than ready to be the recipient of any and all largess regardless of the perceptions that leaves behind.
No one knows if there is a direct quid pro quo between a fancy dinner and a vote, but unfettered coziness leaves plenty of room for speculation, just or unjust. A gift ban law is a sound idea and, despite this last-ditch challenge to get it turned around, lobbyists, legislators and businesses have learned to live with it. To overturn it now would send a message that, in Florida, anything goes.