Georgia House of Representative Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, says to “expect tweaking” by the 2015 General Assembly of the ethics legislation passed last year. In an interview with this writer, he further says “if you are going to have caps on lobbyist spending they ought to be enforced across the board.” Wilkinson also expects Gov. Nathan Deal’s floor leaders to push for more authority and a reconfiguration of the state’s five-member ethics panel.
During the governor’s re-election campaign, he labeled the ethics commission “ineffective,” said an overhaul is “overdue” and that the body should be more “comprehensive.” He proposes that the three branches of state government – executive, legislative and judicial– each appoint four members. The 12 would select a chairman, and panelists would be barred from considering any cases or complaints involving their branch. Deal also said the expanded panel would not infringe on General Assembly ethics committees or the Judicial Qualifications Commission which probes judiciary complaints.
Wilkinson says “the leadership” is focusing on the ramifications of last year’s ethics law, which among other things capped a lobbyist from giving anything of value over $75 to a legislator (ranging from golf games to free athletic event tickets). That law, however, changed the definition of lobbyist to exclude public employees, including University System of Georgia lobbyists who traditionally have been shameless in giving everything ranging from free tickets to dinners for lawmakers who vote on their funding requests. Wilkinson is unsure at this point whether his colleagues would close this loophole.
A recent investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that in 2014 state universities were handing out free football tickets to members of their local legislative delegations. It also found that University of Georgia lobbyists alone logged $22,589 in wining, dining and gifts on public officials last year— about half of all spending by the entire University System. (Lawmakers appropriated about $1.9 billion for the system’s 31 colleges this year.) And these freebies didn’t have to be reported for the first time.
One of UGA’s favorite football ticket recipients is House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn. England even boasts on the record to an AJC reporter that his wife is a “rabid” Georgia Bulldog fan and enjoys using his free tickets as much if not more than he does. (Some lawmakers made repeated ticket requests, the UGA lobbyist admitted.) England also believes colleges shouldn’t have to register staffers as lobbyists and report what they spend.
Proponents of transparency and ending the football ticket loophole range from Tea Party groups on the right to the left-leaning Common Cause Georgia. “Absolutely the University System schools should report what they spend,” says Common Cause executive director William Perry. “There is a need for us to know where our institutions are spending money to influence legislation.”
