Golden Fork, golden surplus

As mentioned here last month, lobbyists spend a lot of money entertaining legislators at Topeka and other venues. At the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, statistics for 2022 are now complete; Martin Hawver, dean of the statehouse press and his wife Vickie, of Hawver’s Capitol Report, have captured special flavors in the numbers.
For the 5th consecutive year, Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover (Wichita) Republican, has won the Report’s “Golden Fork Award” for accepting the most food and drink bought for a Kansas legislator. Lobbyists spent $5,460 on meals, drinks and sporting events for Masterson last year ‒ about $100 more than was spent on him in 2021.
In the past five years, lobbyists have spent $22,165 entertaining Masterson. He was not alone.
Last year, an election season, lobbyists spent $760,000 entertaining and schmoozing Kansas legislators and associates ‒ $311,000 more than they spent in 2021. Much of that expense was for food and liquor, but the amount includes expenses for recreation, entertainment and gifts, and media advertising to lobby issues or benefit lawmakers.
The numbers: Food and beverage, $545,829; recreation $12,418; entertainment and gifts, $12,187; mass media, $88,089; communications, $88,896; “miscellaneous”, $12,525.
Lobbyists generally spend more on legislators with the most power ‒ in Kansas, the Republican leadership and chairs of influential committees. The Top 25 included 22 Republicans and only three Democrats ‒ ten senators, 15 House members.
Among the top five with Masterson last year were House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita (majority leader in 2022), $5,339; Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R- Wichita, chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, $4,538; then-Speaker Ron Rykman (retired) of Olathe, $4,720; and House majority leader Chris Croft, R-Overland Park, $4,474.
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Who spent that money?
At the top were:
‒ The Kansas Association of Realtors, $86,710 , from most of it on mass media; the remainder, $12,697, for food and drink.
‒ Americans For Prosperity (a Koch-sponsored league), $58,498, most of it on communications, the rest ($5,743) on food and drink.
‒ The Kansas Bankers Association: $38,716, all but $240 on food and drink.
Another 16 organizations and their lobbyists spent from $10,000 to $20,000. They are:
Kansas Beer Wholesalers Association, $19,907; Heartland Credit Union Association, $18,876; Kansas Contractors Association, $17,924;
Frederico-Duerst Consulting Group: $16,772; Kansas Electric Cooperatives Inc., $15,759; Kansas Medical Society, $14,919; Evergy, $13,995;
Convention of States Action, $13,456; Kansas Hospital Association, $13,081; Kansas Chamber of Commerce, $12,442; Kansas Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association,$12,388; Kansas Cable Telecommunications Association, $12,336;
Kansas State Council of Fire Fighters, $11,376; AT&T Inc. and Affiliates, $10,688; Kansas Automobile Dealers Association, $10,660; Kansas Trial Lawyers Association: $10,600.
Expenses listed for individual legislators do not include the big parties. Large events are often sponsored by lobbying organizations. Lobbyists spent more than $345,000 last year on receptions and other large hospitality events attended by legislators. Senators and House members may frequently attend these affairs but they are not listed individually. (Specific spending, though, conveys the personal touch.)
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Expect a lot of that personal contact during the election season next year. Lobbyists will be campaigning for a long list of benefits and issues encouraged by a robust $9.4 billion state operating budget.
The estimated balance is nearly $2 billion, expected to increase to $2.6 billion in the budget year that starts July 1. And this is atop the state’s $1.7 billion emergency reserve (“rainy day”) fund.
Republicans, who dominate in the legislature, can thank Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and a handful of moderates for this golden surplus. Kelly six years ago led efforts to pull the state from near bankruptcy and yawning debt piled up during the no-tax Brownback years of borrow-and-spend.
Republicans will feel free to spend the Democrats’ savings. Tops on their list are tax cuts, once a Brownback favorite and the kind of favor hard to ignore in an election year. Lobbyists will be ready to help with spending of their own.