Hey, heres $34,253, now look the other way.
"Third was the Montana Association of Realtors at $45,903, followed by Spring Creek Lodge, a Sanders County school for troubled youths, at $34,253 and the Montana Association of Counties at $33,794"
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MEA-MFT tops lobbyist spending
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - The union representing teachers and government employees spent $96,270 through Feb. 28 to top the list of groups trying to influence legislators, reports filed last week with the state political practices commissioner show.
Eric Feaver, president of the 17,000-member union, makes no apologies for the spending, citing the MEA-MFT's ambitious agenda at the Legislature. It includes an already-approved pay raise for state workers, increased state funding for schools to meet the Montana Supreme Court ruling, the Montana university system budget and other spending that affects state workers, teachers and professors in House Bill 2, the state's major budget bill.
"We're very dedicated to getting our work done, and our members have directed that we move forward in a very assertive fashion," Feaver said in a phone interview. "We're pulling out every available dollar to serve our members."
He said the MEA-MFT is Montana's largest union by a long shot and serves many interests.
"We certainly have spent some money, and we're happy to do so because it is being done in a purposeful, direct way," Feaver said.
Much of the MEA-MFT spending has been to bring its members to Helena to lobby their legislators and pay for mailings to members to keep them informed of what's happening at the session, he said.
The union also has bought newspaper advertising to promote the union's support for a bill for a statewide health insurance plan for all school employees and underwritten a "work that matters" advertising campaign to build support for state employees' pay hikes.
Feaver said the MEA-MFT also may rank first in lobbying expenses for another reason.
"We tell the truth," he said. "We actually report what we spend. That is not to suggest that all the other entities don't. There's always that ambiguity about what goes on. We err on the side of caution. Probably not everybody else does."
MEA-MFT has nine registered lobbyists, seven of which are union employees or officers.
The reports filed with the political practices commissioner showed MEA-MFT had spent $29,341 on lobbyists and $21,361 on travel for the first two months of the session. Its advertising costs totaled $23,265, while the group spent $9,080 on entertainment, including $5,048 for a dinner for all legislators and statewide elected officials at the Great Northern Best Western Hotel.
The other major lobbying group involved in the school funding debate is the Montana School Boards Association, which ranked 10th in spending at $25,917.
Third was the Montana Association of Realtors at $45,903, followed by Spring Creek Lodge, a Sanders County school for troubled youths, at $34,253 and the Montana Association of Counties at $33,794.
The Montana Farm Bureau Federation was sixth at $31,067. Next were Fidelity Exploration & Production Co., an oil and natural gas exploration and development company, at $29,993; AARP Montana at $28,133; Deaconess Billings Clinic at $26,606; and Montana School Board Association, $25,917.
MEA-MFT's lobbying expenses were nearly $20,000 more than PPL Montana, the power generation company that ranked second in lobbying spending with $76,968.
PPL Montana's chief expense was the $52,116 to pay its lobbyists for the first two months. It has eight registered lobbyists, including three who are full-time PPL employees.
David Hoffman, PPL Montana's manager of external affairs, defended the company's spending.
"We've got some important issues, and we have to watch those," he said, citing energy, tax and environmental issues.
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