Spending to influence Nebraska lawmakers and shape state laws hit record levels again last year.
A report prepared by Common Cause Nebraska taken from filings with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission found that businesses and organizations that hire lobbyists spent more than $21.4 million, a 5.5% increase from the previous year.
Given inflation, which has pushed the cost of nearly everything higher over the past two years, the increase in lobbying expenditures is inevitable, and a similar jump in spending for the 2023 session should be expected when filings are compiled next year.
Nor should the amount spent, $21.4 million, come as a shock. But the two-decade increase, from $3 million in 2000 to $19.4 million in 2019, is stunning, as are the $1 million-plus incomes of the top lobbying firms.
For comparative purposes, senators make $12,000 a year, which amounts to $588,000 for the entire Legislature.
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Lobbying, of course, takes place in every capitol around the country. But, by its structure, Nebraska’s unicameral gives the lobby greater influence than in two-house legislatures as there are far fewer lawmakers — 49 compared with 105 in Idaho, which exactly matches Nebraska’s population – with the “people” philosophically seen as the “second house.”
In practice, however, the lobbyists largely stand in for “the people,” promoting the interests of clients that may or, often, may not be supported by the public as a whole.
Term limits in Nebraska and 15 other states also work to increase the influence and power of the lobby.
Put simply, the lobby provides long-running representation of clients, becoming the bank of knowledge on issues and legislative history and maneuvering that takes senators years of their maximum two terms to learn.
This, in no way, should be seen as a critique of individual lobbyists, or of the lobbying system, which, at the least, is transparent enough to identify the biggest spenders — this session, the Nebraska Farm Bureau, League of Nebraska Municipalities, the University of Nebraska, Centene Corporation and the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
That information, to some measure, allows legislative watchers to get some measure of the power and effectiveness of each of the “special interests.”
But, for the good of the legislation being crafted and, eventually, the state, that influence that some read as legislation being bought and sold by the lobby needs to be balanced.
Citizen input beyond individuals testifying at a bill’s public hearing — e.g. organized lobbying campaigns with face-to-face meetings that operate much like lobbyists — can supply some of that balance, often with positive results.
And some of that balance has to be supplied by experienced senators and their staffs, who listen to input by that of the lobby, do their own research and use their expertise to act in the interest of their constituents that is beyond the narrow interests of the lobby.