SHARE:
Tallahassee Trend
Lobbyists Are Going the Extra Mile
They are getting creative as their clients and the state face budget challenges.
 Lobbyist Ron Book (right) meets with state Sen. Mike Fasano at the state Capitol. Businesses that cut lobbying expenses in tough times, Book says, could wind up paying a high price. |
Looking for ways to plug an $82-million budget hole, Broward County commissioners decided last year to cut library and park hours. They also sacked two of the seven lobbying firms they had employed — a move that will save $66,000.
Palm Beach County commissioners have also scaled back their legislative affair’s budget for 2009, cutting their federal lobbyist’s pay by 22% and applying a 12.5% across-the-board reduction to their state lobbying contracts.
Florida lobbyists say local governments aren’t the only ones taking a hard look at their lobbying budgets. As they look for ways to cut costs, some recession-plagued companies, non-profits and trade associations are also cutting back on lobbying expenses.
“A lot of them are cutting back — either reducing the fee or saying, ‘I can’t afford a lobbyist this year,’ ” says Ken Plante, a longtime Tallahassee lobbyist who represents various interests, including the Florida Home Builders Association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Florida Association of Community Colleges and such notable companies as 7-Eleven, Swisher International and Tampa Bay Downs.
Plante says he hasn’t lost any work this year, but he knows others who have. “You have a lot of groups that had hired multiple lobbyists that are now reducing the size of those teams or doing away with them completely.”
Carl Adams, president of the Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists, says the situation is serious enough that some of the 450 registered lobbyists who belong to his organization have been unable to pay their $150 annual membership dues. “I am seeing people who shouldn’t be late paying and are late paying,” says Adams. In an upcoming issue of his newsletter, “Lobby Letters,” Adams encourages lobbyists who are doing well to steer any extra work to those who’ve lost clients.
The sagging economy — and contracting state coffers — is also impacting the hired guns’ strategies. The game in 2009 will be about preserving an appropriation rather than getting a new one.
“It’s a year where you’ve either got to be incredibly innovative if you’re going to start a program with no money, or you’re holding on to what you’ve got,” says Gene Adams, a Tallahassee lobbyist who represents close to two dozen organizations, including several insurance companies, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association.
Plante says that while two of his clients — the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and Florida Association of Community Colleges — are focused on the state budget, the rest are worried about regulatory issues. Legislators, he says, are “staring at a another $6-billion hole to fill. They’re talking about looking at all the (sales tax) exemptions. You know they won’t look at food or medicine, so where are they going to be looking? That will be something that obviously a lot of my clients will be worried about.”
