ICPR releases survey of lobbyist contracts

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s annual survey of local governments and public agencies found 119 units of government contracted with 85 lobbyists or multi-member lobbying firms and paid them a total of $6,364,860.08 in FY2009. The total is nearly the same as the FY 08 spending and is up 23.6 percent in comparison to the $5 million identified in the FY 07 survey.

The biggest spender was the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which spent $385,345 to hire six lobbying firms. A total of more than $1 million was spent by the four Chicago area mass transit agencies —the CTA, the Regional Transportation Authority, Metra and Pace.

“Compared to disclosure requirements for lobbying the federal government and many other states, the Illinois Lobbyist Registration Act is extremely weak,” said David Morrison, Deputy Director of ICPR. “There are few disclosure requirements in Illinois law, and enforcement is deficient at best. Even some local governments, including the City of Chicago,  require more information from those registered to lobby city government.”

Articles
Illinois governments, agencies spent millions on lobbyists last year - Springfield Journal-Register
CTA, RTA, Metra, PACE spent nearly $1 million on Springfield lobbying - Chicago Tribune