State Lobbying Becomes Billion-Dollar Business At least a dozen states revise laws in 2006

By Sarah Laskow

Centre for Public Integrity, December 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, December 20, 2006 — State lobbyists and the companies that hire them spent a record of more than $1 billion in 2005 to influence state lawmakers and officials, the Center for Public Integrity has found.

The almost 7,400 legislators in the 50 state capitals across the country passed close to 40,000 laws last year, according to figures from the State Net Web site. Those lawmakers also allocated an estimated $1.3 trillion in taxpayer money, according to The Fiscal Survey of States for 2005 released jointly by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Directors.

And working in the hallways of the nation's 50 statehouses was a corps of close to 40,000 registered lobbyists paid to advance the agendas of almost 50,000 companies and organizations, the Center found. Nationwide, that averages out to more than five lobbyists for each lawmaker.