From the State Journal-Register:

Lobbyist fees to go up

By PAT GUINANE
STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

The price of access in the state Capitol is in flux.

The annual $50 registration fee charged to Illinois' nearly 3,000 lobbyists was supposed to double under ethics legislation passed during the spring session of the General Assembly. But Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he will amend that bill and raise the fee tenfold to $500 a year.

In the meantime, a nearly unnoticed provision in one of the massive budget bills the governor signed Friday already increased the fee to $300 for most lobbyists and $100 for non-profit groups.

The bill includes a carefully worded provision that would enable Blagojevich to steer a portion of his proposed $500 lobbyist registration fee toward the state's main checkbook. The budget bill provides that at least $100 of any additional increase beyond $300 goes to a fund for regulating lobbying in Illinois and any fee above that could be diverted to the general revenue fund.

The Governor's Office of Management and Budget estimated that at $300, the registration fee would bring the state about $600,000. Based on that projection, a $500 fee would net $1 million, with as much as $200,000 potentially available for the general revenue fund.

However, if the General Assembly approves Blagojevich's changes to the ethics legislation, lobbyists who register this summer or fall could end up owing an additional $200 next year.

"That fee is implemented on a calendar year, so they wouldn't do this until Jan. 1 anyway, which would be enough time to get that number finalized," budget spokeswoman Becky Carroll said.

The higher fee could mean that fringe lobbyists who do little work in Springfield take a pass on registration, but the agency that regulates lobbying in Illinois isn't quite sure.

"We can't speculate," said secretary of state spokeswoman Beth Kaufman. A cluster of new lobbyists often registers during the legislature's fall veto session, but most wait until January, she said.

The amount that registering will cost in January depends upon the legislature's reception of the governor's amended ethics bill.

Led by House Republican Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, the General Assembly earlier this year appeared determined to forge legislation intended to clean up a state where officials have been the subjects of federal scrutiny and a licenses-for-bribes scandal.

With the support of House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, a bill to prevent campaign work on state time, rein in lobbyist gifts and address a number of other ethical quandaries passed the House. But the Senate ignored that legislation and instead advanced a significantly scaled-back version.

"I'm still kind of shocked at what the Senate did," Cross said.

The governor has promised to amend the scaled-back legislation, House Bill 3412, when it gets to his desk and send it back to the legislature for approval.

"He's basically incorporated everything we had from the outset, so I'm certainly supportive of it," Cross said.

The $250 fee increase for lobbyist registration essentially got lost in the fray of the hectic last few days of the spring legislative session, Cross said. But the plan to take the fee even higher should not hinder the ethics bill, he added.

"I think most people feel that way," Cross said. "The issue of whether it's $300 or $500 is not going, to me, be the deciding factor of whether it passes or not."

Pat Guinane can be reached at 782-6883 or patrick.guinane@sj-r.com.