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WEAC Leads Lobby Spending For First Half of 2011
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | August 24, 2011
From WisPolitics:
The Wisconsin Education Association Council led the state in overall lobbying in the last legislative session.
And it doubled down in the first half of this year.
In the first six months of the current session — with a budget repair bill casting doubt on the future of public sector unions and a Republican spending plan in the works — the state’s largest teachers union more than doubled its lobbying spending compared to the first six months of 2009.
WEAC spent $2.06 million lobbying in the first half of 2011, according to the latest totals from the Government Accountability Board — up from just more than $1 million during the first quarter of the 2009-2010 session.
According to its GAB report, more than three-quarters of the group’s lobbying effort was spent on either the budget repair bill or the state budget bill. Forty percent of its effort was spent on the collective bargaining bill alone, while its most-lobbied budget bill topics were categorical aids, choice and charter schools, and general school aids and revenue limits.
For the full 2009-2010 session, WEAC had nearly $2.5 million in lobbying expenses. Although the union is well on its way to exceeding that level, there are signs of trouble in the aftermath of the state’s collective bargaining changes.
WEAC announced the layoffs of about 40 percent of its staff this week, and Executive Director Dan Burkhalter said those notices were based on a reduction in school staff alone. Burkhalter said any projections of lost members in now-annual recertification votes weren’t considered in the latest staffing decision.
WisPolitics reviewed the January-June 2011 lobbying expenses of the top-spending groups from the last session. The second-highest spending group this year among the top 10 from last session — the Wisconsin Medical Society — spent $253,770 in the first six months of 2011. While that’s ahead of its 2009 pace, it was less than one-eighth of WEAC’s spending during the same span.
The Medical Society’s largest lobbying efforts went toward health care reform and the state’s health information organization. It spent 16 percent of its effort on Medical Assistance programs in the budget, and 7 percent on a bill that would prohibit apologies by health care providers from being admissible in medical malpractice cases.
This session’s efforts from other top groups included:
– Wisconsin Counties Association: $233,081 spent lobbying between January and June.
The group didn’t disclose targeting individual bills or topics, reporting to the GAB that no single topic took up more than 10 percent of its total effort for the session so far.
– Wisconsin Energy Corp.: $219,506
Twenty percent of the group’s effort went toward the Administration Department budget, while another 20 percent went toward a bill allowing the Public Service Commission to approve temporary electric rates for the purposes of promoting economic development.
– Wisconsin Hospital Association: $218,334
Forty percent of the group’s lobbying effort was reported under Medical Assistance programs in the state budget.
– Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce: $193,244
The state’s top business lobbying group spent 21 percent of its overall effort this year on the issue of mining regulation. A bill that’s expected to expedite the state’s mining approval process wasn’t introduced in the spring, but is a top GOP priority for the fall floor session.
WMC reported 19 percent of its effort spent in support of legislation to overhaul the state’s administrative rules process.
– Altria Client Services Inc. : $191,319
More than 90 percent of the company’s effort was spent lobbying general fund taxes in the budget.
A provision that would have altered the tax rates for chewing tobacco moved through the Legislature but was vetoed out of the budget by Gov. Walker.
– Wisconsin Insurance Alliance: $112,981
The group’s largest lobbying effort went toward supporting an overhaul of the state’s auto insurance standards.
– Forest County Potawatomi: $83,937
The tribe, which recorded the second-largest lobbying total in the past session, spent 15 percent of its effort on each of three topics: the state’s renewable energy standard, use of race-based mascots in schools, and voter ID.
– Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation: $76,848
The farm group also didn’t report any individual effort that comprised more than 10 percent of the group’s total lobbying activity.
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