Legislators: Audits of lobbyists "waste of time"

Nearly two years after the gift ban went into effect the state still has not begun random audits to make sure that lobbying firms are correctly reporting what they get paid. And it does not look like that will change soon.

The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee on Monday shot down proposed guidelines on how the state would hire auditors to make sure lobbying firms are complying with the compensation reporting requirements that were part of the gift ban.

Sen. Ronda Storms, the Brandon Republican who followed Tom Lee, the prime sponsor of the reporting requirement questioned the need for audits.

"This seems like a colossal waste of time and energy," said Storms after hearing it could cost as much as $1 million to hire the firms to do the audits.

The committee voted 5 to 2 to reject the guidelines.

Comments

Wow, I actually agree with Crazy Rhonda on something!

How much money is wasted filing the useless reports? Let's kill them next

[Cynical Idealist]

5:54....it's Ronda, no "H," but never the less, it's amazing how the press pushed the legislature into a corner and then how the legislature finds a way to gut what it is the press "pressed" for so hard...Kind of like, where there's a will, there's a loophole...But, the press is too stupid to discern they don't run the process and that, really, they only have slightly less influence than the lobbyists whose efforts they decry so viciously. Fineout in particular is a clusless id10t....

[Cynical Idealist]

my bad....I meant to spell cluEless.

[Cynical Idealist]

my bad....I meant to spell cluEless.

[Cynical Idealist]

my bad....I meant to spell cluEless.