As Spending On Lobbying Increases, Transparency Remains Murky

By Hillary Borrud, Capital Bureau, East Oregonian

 SALEM — Businesses, special interest groups and governments have increasingly invested in lobbying Oregon lawmakers and other state officials over the last nine years. And based on spending data from the state, those groups appear to have concluded lobbying is a good investment: reported annual spending on lobbying increased 15 percent from 2007 to 2015, when adjusted for inflation…

The EO Media Group/Pamplin Media Group Capital Bureau categorized lobbying spending in Oregon by industry and sector using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks spending on lobbying by industry at the federal level. In total, groups spent more than $251 million on lobbying over the last nine years, according to state data…

We Respond & Your Comments

Gee, we can’t figure out why businesses want to blow all this loot on lobbyists. After all, lobbyists don’t produce anything for them to sell. So why not spend that money on expansion? Or maybe some new employees? Wouldn’t that be more productive?

Could it be that some level of government regulates:

• How much to pay some employees?
• How much time off to give them for maternity leave?
• How much sick leave to give them?
• How much of their profits they have to turn over for an ever-growing list of taxes?

Then there are never ending regulations that tip the scales in favor of big businesses that can afford to deal with them and leave smaller competitors gasping for air. And the government picking winners and losers based on who’s “greenest.”

So lobbyists become businesses’ main line of defense against more government intrusion. Want to get rid of lobbyists? Get the government off of businesses’ backs.

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