Lobbyists set new record of $11.13 million for money spent in this year’s Kentucky General Assembly

By Tom Latek
Kentucky At the moment

After COVID-19 led to a decrease spending whole for the earlier even-year legislative session in 2020, employers and lobbyists spent a record-setting $11,130,780 to foyer the Kentucky Normal Meeting this yr, in line with the Legislative Department Ethics Fee.

The earlier file for spending throughout a legislative session was set in 2018, with $10.67 million spent to affect legislators concerning legislative points.

Breaking it down one other means, if that $11.1 million was divided equally among the many 138 legislators, a little bit greater than $80,000 would have been spent on every of them in lobbying efforts.

The highest 10 spending organizations for the 2022 common session had been led by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which spent $183,949.
 
In second place was the Kentucky Hospital Affiliation with $149,046.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky spent $128,258; Altria Shopper Companies LLC (Philip Morris), $126,793; Tempo-O-Matic of Kentucky, $106,150; Kentucky League of Cities, Inc., $102,195; Pharmaceutical Care Administration Affiliation, $86,168; Larger Louisville, Inc., $82,290; Kentucky Retail Federation, Inc., $82,118; whereas Anthem Inc. and its associates completed tenth at $70,597.

The top of the 2022 legislative session additionally introduced a number of terminations of lobbying exercise reported to the Fee, in addition to some new ones.

Terminated employers embrace: 23andMe; AdventFS; American Kidney Fund, Inc.; Ancestry; Bamboo Well being FKA Appriss Well being; Broadus Capital; Shopper Vitality Alliance; Finseca; Frankfort Unbiased Colleges; Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Firm; KY Animal Motion; Nationwide Affiliation of Social Employees KY Chapter; Ovid Ventures; Owl’s Head Alloys, Inc.; Purdue Pharma LP; RB Seelbach LLC; Recording Trade Affiliation of America, Inc.; and Shaker Village of Nice Hill.

New employers registering with the Legislative Ethics Fee after the tip of the 2022 session had been: The Coalition for Genetic Knowledge Safety, Kentucky Hemp Works, and College students for Life Motion.

The Kentucky Baptist Conference, of which Kentucky At the moment is a component, spent $5,500 in lobbying efforts throughout the 2022 session, which went to lobbyist and former state consultant Dwight Butler. His efforts concerned lobbying in opposition to the passage of Home Invoice 136, a measure to legalize medical marijuana; in addition to HB 606, establishing the framework for legalized sports activities wagering in Kentucky. Each payments acquired passage within the Home, however no last motion was taken within the Senate earlier than the session ended.