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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Jackson County Mental Health will begin White City appointments ... No charges will be filed in double-fatal crash on Interstate 5 ... Free well water testing for nitrate contamination offered in Central Point ... Jackson County Mental Health will begin White City appointments ... No charges will be filed in double-fatal crash on Interstate 5 ... Free well water testing for nitrate contamination offered in Central Point ... OUR VIEW Our View: Law lets lobbyists keep public in the dark Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Aug. 16, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Aug. 16, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Despite all the focus on ethics in government during the 2015 legislative session, one key element of the lawmaking process got little attention: lobbying. A report released last week by the Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group, gives Oregon an F grade for its rules governing lobbyists and what they must disclose. Lobbyists play an important role in the Legislature, advocating for their clients and for and against bills, and in many cases educating busy legislators about the details of often complex legislation. There is nothing wrong with that — as long as the public knows who is doing the lobbying, for whom they are working and how much they are spending. The Sunlight Foundation report says Oregon is one of four states with the most lenient rules for what lobbyists must disclose. Lobbyists must register in Oregon, but they need not report the causes they are advocating or their positions on specific bills, as many other states require. When it comes to money, Oregon allows lobbyists to spend up to $50 per year on any individual legislator before reporting any expenditures. That means a lobbyist can buy meals, drinks or small gifts for lawmakers without disclosing it as long as it doesn't reach the threshold. Other states have a threshold of zero, or set it very low, such as $5. The biggest lack of disclosure, however, doesn't directly involve lawmakers. It's the amount of money lobbyists spend lobbying other lobbyists. If that sounds confusing, it's really not. When a lobbyist is trying to build support for a particular bill, or organize opposition to one, it's helpful to enlist other lobbyists in the effort — a coalition of industries, for example, to oppose new requirements on employers. And because lobbyists aren't public officials, there is no limit on how much can be spent to influence them. What's more, lobbyists have been specifically exempt from reporting these expenses since 2013, and a bill passed this year extends that exemption for two more years. Gov. Kate Brown signed it on Wednesday. The bill originally would have made the exemption permanent, but Ron Bersin, executive director of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, urged lawmakers to amend it to include only the two-year extension, because a new online reporting system for lobbyists is due to be finished in 2016, making the reporting easier and muting opposition on those grounds. Bersin noted that industries, organizations and other interests reported spending a total of $26 million on lobbyists in 2014, but the lobbyists themselves reported spending only $92,000 on people they lobbied. That huge difference would shed a great deal of light on who is spending what to influence Oregon government. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Aug. 16, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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