Top 10 Biggest Spending Lobbyist Groups of Oregon’s 2015 Legislative Session

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Rebecca Randall, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Gun background checks, high-stakes student assessment, clean fuel standards and marijuana were some of the top issues of the session—a fact that lines up with lobbyist expenditures for January through July of 2015.

However, not all lobbyists’ top priorities rose to prominence on the public radar during the 2015 Legislative Session, which ran from Feb. 2 through July 9. Some had their efforts fall flat.

For example, Joe Baessler, the political director of Oregon American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), explained that he represents a wide array of members, which therefore keeps him involved in a wide array of legislative issues.

Oregon AFSCME was the third most spending lobbying group in the first half of the year, though of its top four priorities, only one saw a couple of bills pass. HB 2618 qualified certain employees of residential facilities as police officers under PERS, while SB 226 created a task force to address the violence issues at these facilities.

Meanwhile, perhaps a farther reaching issue supported by AFSCME—public contracting reform and transparency—didn’t get past committee.

So, while money did get some of these issues to the top, money didn't necessarily guarantee legislative attention.

This week the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) released lobbyist expenditures through June. Here are the top 10 biggest spending lobbying groups:

1. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund - $764,232.35

2. Oregon Education Assn - $280,177.00

3. Oregon AFSCME Cncl 75 - $278,937.74

4. League of Oregon Cities - $241,926.82

5. Associated General Contractors - $231,816.40

6. Association of Oregon Counties - $227,221.44

7. Western States Petroleum Assn - $214,990.00

8. Cambia Health Solutions, Inc - $208,914.00

9. Oregon Nurses Association - $197,263.97

10. Providence Health & Services - $187,798.45

According to Oregon law, all lobbyists are required to report expenditures to the OGEC every quarter. The data doesn’t exactly correlate with the legislative session, however, and lobbyists certainly continue to spend year round—even when the Legislature is not meeting.

The tally listed by GoLocal includes expenditures from the lobbying groups, which are most often salaries. However, the OGEC also requires individual lobbyists to report expenses, such as food, refreshment or entertainment used to promote a legislative goal or gain support of a legislative official. These expenses are not included in the list, though it should be noted they are much lower than expenditures reported by a lobbying group.

Many of these lobbyists did sit at the table for some of the more prominent bills of the 2015 session. Here’s how they fit in:

Gun background checks

Lobbyists spent the most on Oregon’s SB 941, which expanded background checks to private transfers of guns. The national gun control advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety (No. 1), spent about $764,000 in Oregon to support the bill. Founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in 2007, Mayors Against Illegal Guns merged with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in 2013 and changed its name to Everytown for Gun Safety a year later.

Everytown’s lobbying efforts included fact sheets and shareable web graphics on background checks, law enforcement deaths and criminal access to guns in Oregon as well as a TV commercial featuring Portland Police Chief Mike Reece.

The public hearings on the bill gathered hundreds of voices on the topic from both sides of the issue. Jenn Lynch, a member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Safety, testified that there are 45,000 Oregon members of Everytown, and argued that Oregon needs background checks for private gun sales.

The financial impact of the pro-gun lobby was much smaller than Everytown, though their ranks were many. A handful of groups opposing the bill spent about $88,800. The biggest spenders were the National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the Oregon Hunters Association. A couple of registered lobbyists even worked for free.

High-stakes student assessment

The Oregon Education Association is No. 2 for dollars spent during the 2015 legislative session, and according to the OEA’s report card on the session, they were dollars well spent. Two bills addressed student assessment: HB 2655 gives parents the right to opt out of standardized testing; HB 2680 attempts to take the “high stakes” out of the tests by prohibiting school ratings and educator evaluations based on students’ performance.

The bills put Oregon at risk of losing federal dollars.

A work group will also be formed to help improve the student assessment system in Oregon.

Clean fuels or transportation?

Once the dust settled at the end of the 2015 session, proponents of low carbon standards could breathe easy: Oregon will have a clean fuels market. The renewed standard requires fuel importers to reduce the carbon content of their fuels by 10 percent by 2025—either by blending biofuels in their product or by purchasing credits from alternative fuel producers or projects.

SB 324 was passed in March, but later in the session Gov. Kate Brown proposed a transportation funding package that would have killed the bill and replaced it with other carbon reduction measures, while also adding taxes and fees to pay for transportation repairs and improvements.

Republican legislators upset about the clean fuels bill had threatened to block efforts to pass a transportation package, so the replacement clean fuels proposal was meant to be a compromise.

The proposal was bolstered by the oil industry’s disapproval of the original clean fuels standard. The Western States Petroleum Association (No. 8) lobbied against clean fuels.

Meanwhile, other lobbying groups were counting on the legislature to pass a transportation package, though did not necessarily take positions on clean fuels.

The League of Oregon Cities (No. 4) wanted increased funding for roads. “Unfortunately, this effort got mixed up with one of the most controversial bills of the session, legislation that extends the state’s low carbon fuel standards program. This bill, which passed early in the session, derailed development of a transportation package,” it wrote in a legislative recap.

The Associated General Contractors, the fifth top lobbying spender, also supported increased funding for road maintenance. “At some point, there needs to be political will inside and outside government to face this problem and get major projects flowing again,” wrote executive director of the local chapter of AGC Mike Salsgiver. “The longer we wait, the more our transportation system will deteriorate and the more expensive it will be to fix it.”

Marijuana regulations

The Legislature also faced clarifying provisions made in Measure 91, which voters approved to legalize marijuana. Some of these addressed local concerns, bringing some of the top lobbyists to the table. Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties, argued that Measure 91, which only permitted opt outs through an election, did not give local jurisdictions adequate options.

In the sweeping HB 3400 signed in June, legislators gave local governments the right to opt out of the recreational marijuana program if at least 55 percent of voters opposed Measure 91. Those that do not qualify under that provision must put the issue to voters in a general election.

So far, a handful of counties and cities have opted out of the recreational marijuana program, including Malheur, Douglas, Umatilla and Harney counties, as well as a handful of small cities.

The legislature also gave local jurisdictions that do permit recreational marijuana the option of imposing a three percent point-of-sale tax on recreational marijuana. This would be in addition to the state’s 17 percent point-of-sale tax.

Health care

Cambia Health Solutions (No. 8), the Oregon Nurses Association (No. 9) and Providence Health Services (No. 10) were the top lobbyists from health backgrounds, though by no means the only ones. Many health-related bills received less public attention overall, but still a long list of bills was passed.

Some interesting ones: HB 2300 allows patients to try unapproved medications under conditions that were amended after concerns were raised by Providence Health. HB 3343, which requires medical insurance companies to cover contraceptives for 12 months, was supported by the Oregon Nurses Association.

Related Slideshow: Slideshow: 10 Western States And The Money They Could Make From Legal Pot

Oregon could earn $54,558,596 a year from excise taxes on legal Marijuana, according to a study by NerdWallet. The study also determined each state's marijuana market size, population percentage 25 and over who use, and the state's percentage of the U.S. pot market. See how these other Western states compared to Oregon.