Public Bodies Are Paying over $7.4 million Annually to Lobbyists
June 9, 2011
CHICAGO – Local governments, transit agencies and other public bodies spent nearly $7.5 million in the last fiscal year on contracts with lobbyists hired to monitor and influence state officials, according to an annual survey conducted by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR).
In ICPR utilized the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gather contract information from 141 local governments and public agencies, which disclosed contract and/or billing information from 77 lobbying entities. The lobbyists were paid a total of $7,447,500 for work conducted between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010.
“We found a slight increase in payments for contracts in effect the last two years, but a large increase in the overall number of contracts, so that total spending has climbed by over $850,000,” said David Morrison, Deputy Director of ICPR. “The information gathered in this survey gives the public a better picture of how public dollars are used to monitor and lobby state government, but state lobbying regulations reveal next to nothing about much larger lobbying budgets of corporations, unions and others with lobbyists in Springfield.
“Disclosing this spending by public bodies was only possible because FOIA requires that government contracts be provided to members of the public who ask for it,” Morrison said. “State lobbying regulations should be changed to require more reporting of financial information as is done at the federal level. The public should have easy access to detailed information about public and private organizations employing lobbyists. What are they spending to lobby our elected leaders and top state officials? Whom are they lobbying? And what exactly are they asking of state government?”
The findings included:
- The Regional Transportation Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority, Pace and Metra combined for $1,024,600 in spending on lobbying, an 8 percent increase over last year’s survey. The RTA and its service boards accounted for 13.6 percent of lobbying expenditures by all units of government.
- For the 3rd year in row, the CTA was the biggest spender on contract lobbyists in the survey. In FY 10, the CTA spent a total of more than $370,000 with four lobbying firms.
- Municipalities account for over half of the units of government identified in the research. Municipalities spending the most on contract lobbyists are: the City of Metropolis ($143,762) the Village of University Park ($135,000) the Village of Bellwood ($106,000), the City of Aurora ($91,000) and the City of Cicero ($88,000).
- There were 15 public colleges and universities with lobbying contracts. The largest users of lobbying services are: the City Colleges of Chicago ($191,892); Southern Illinois University ($122,500); Northeastern Illinois University ($85,000); Harper College ($72,500), and Morton College ($62,000).
ICPR’s survey also details irregularities in reporting by some lobbying firms, as well as improvements in working with the revised FOIA but also delays and obstacles to retrieving documents by some local governments in the survey.
“In recent years, the Freedom of Information Act has been improved and even has made conducting this survey less expensive, and the state’s campaign finance laws have been improved through more frequent disclosure, contribution limits and a ban on some contributions by state contractors, Morrison said. "However, the Illinois Lobbyist Registration Act is still extremely weak and should be overhauled to shine more light on how state business is conducted.”
About the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization conducting research and advocating reforms to promote public participation in government, address the role of money in politics and encourage integrity, accountability and transparency in government. The late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon founded ICPR in 1997. For additional information, visit www.ILcampaign.org.
