Just how much money was spent on lobbying this year? That number won’t be available until after the third and fourth reporting period in January.
But, according to the Office of State Ethics, $51.7 million was spent lobbying in 2012. An estimated 77 percent of that was spent on legislative lobbying with the remainder on administrative lobbying. Of the $51.7 million, $37.6 million went to compensate lobbyists.
In 2009, 818 client lobbyists, 472 in-house communicators, and 168 individual communicator lobbyists spent a total of $38.6 million on their efforts. At that time 83 percent of the money was spent on legislative lobbying.
In 2012 there were 1,077 client lobbyists registered, 727 in-house communicators and 109 individual communicators, many of whom are members of business organizations.
On Thursday the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board will randomly select 10 lobbyists to audit. Last year, it selected 40, but budget cuts caused it to cut back.
Top spenders on lobbying in 2012 were the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, Northeast Utilities, AT&T Connecticut and Affiliates, the Connecticut Hospital Association, and the Connecticut Conference on Municipalities.
Top business organizations in 2012: Gaffney, Bennett and Associates, Sullivan & LeShane; Robinson and Cole; Levin, Powers, and Brennan; and Murtha Cullina.
The top five issues lobbied that year were, according to the board, “(1) health and hospitals, health care systems medical organizations; (2) Government – financing, revenue, taxation, budget, appropriations, bids fees, funds, contracts; (3) human services – adult, families, children; (4) Environment – recycling, packaging, pollution, waste; and (5) Business.”
