Lobbyists face Jan. 15 filing deadline

By PBN Staff
Twitter: @ProvBusNews

PROVIDENCE – The hundreds of lobbyists who represented clients before the General Assembly last year face a looming deadline for filing two important reports with the Secretary of State’s Office.

According to a release from Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, state law requires legislative lobbyists, as well as their firms and clients, to file 2012 annual reports and December 2012 monthly reports with the Secretary of State’s office by Tuesday, Jan. 15.

The annual reports, which disclose salary, fees, commissions, gifts or anything else of value totaling more than $250 given to “major state decision-makers” in 2012, will be posted at sos.ri.gov.

“One of my priorities is making government more transparent. We post thousands of reports covering hundreds of lobbyists, lobbying firms and companies,” said Mollis.

Information on sos.ri.gov includes information about who is lobbying as well as their issues, employers, compensation and clients.

“Those so-called ‘major state decision-makers’ include judges, legislators and the top staff of state agencies and quasi-public corporations as well as the offices of Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer and Attorney General,” said a release.

The December monthly report details lobbying expenses and the issues that are being followed as well as campaign contributions.

According to Mollis, the five most heavily lobbied issues in 2012 were: health care, environment, taxation, labor and insurance. In 2011, the most popular topics were state affairs and government, taxation, health care, environment and labor.

At the end of 2012, there were 412 legislative lobbyists and 234 executive lobbyists. In 2011, there were 431 legislative lobbyists and 223 executive lobbyists.