TALLAHASSEE, Florida \u2014 In early December, members of the Florida House got an early Christmas package: A clear bag full of swag including a Bluetooth speaker, a “Go Outdoors Florida” branded Yeti tumbler and a small blanket also featuring some Florida branding.<\/p>\n
But by the end of the day, employees with the House sergeant-at-arms went office to office to collect the bags after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission \u201crescinded\u201d its distribution of Go Outdoors Florida \u201cmarketing materials\u201d to House members.<\/p>\n
Why? Because the giveaway could be seen as a violation of a 20-year-old law that prohibits legislators and others in top roles in state government from accepting anything of value from lobbyists or the principals that hire them<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the commission did not acknowledge if legal concerns led to the decision to gather up the swag bags.<\/p>\n
But the incident suggests that knowledge about the law known informally as the \u201cgift ban\u201d \u2014 heralded at the time it was passed as one of the strictest laws in the nation \u2014 has faded over time, while questions have mounted as to whether the law has truly curbed the ability of special interests to sway legislators and other state officials.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s gift ban, which also included a requirement that lobbyists disclose what they get paid from their clients (albeit it not in exact amounts), took effect Jan. 1, 2006.<\/p>\n
The law’s passage followed a series of incidents detailed in news reports at the time, including a state senator leaning on lobbyists to pay for a trip to South Africa, reports of legislators routinely calling up lobbyists to get their credit card numbers to pay for meals and a gambling company paying to jet four legislators to Canada to visit a casino.<\/p>\n
In the years since its passage, the law \u2014 which also applies to the governor and other top state officials \u2014 has either been ignored or sidestepped in various ways, while making it awkward for a legislator to accept token items such as a bottle of water.<\/p>\n
But Tom Lee, the former state Senate president and husband of Rep. Laurel Lee who championed the legislation, still thinks it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to paint a picture for the public of the Sodom and Gomorrah that was Tallahassee in the \u201890s and early 2000s,\u201d said Lee. \u201cYou literally had members living out of the wallets of lobbyists. The transgressions were just voluminous and were almost always the rule and not the exception. While people complain today about a bottle of water being a technical violation that\u2019s not ever what people were after.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Herron, a longtime ethics and elections lawyer based in Tallahassee, questions the value of the law. He said it has made it more difficult for social interactions with legislators while prompting lobbyists and special interests to pour money into loosely regulated political committees that could then pick up expenses for lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to the gift ban, lobbyists were able to establish relationships with members of the Legislature based on sharing a meal or a drink,\u201d Herron said. \u201cAfter the gift ban, relationships became more transactional based on contributions to a members political committee and campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gift ban also created an outcry from Tallahassee restaurant owners, who blamed it for curtailing their business and claimed it even led to some closures. Attempts to tweak the ban since then have gone nowhere in the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Several Tallahassee lobbyists declined to discuss the gift ban or their interactions with legislators publicly. But Ron Book, a well-known South Florida lobbyist who unsuccessfully challenged the law because it required him to disclose his lobbying income, remains critical of the measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anything changed as a result of the lobbyist reform act,\u201d said Book, who called the compensation reporting requirements that were part of the law \u201cabsurd.\u201d \u201cThose lawmakers that are honest today were honest yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Book argued it \u201ccheapens the process\u201d to make someone put a “few bucks” on a table if they accept something to drink or eat. Book also said some legislators would \u201cbarter\u201d items with lobbyists and show up at dinner parties with cheap wine to justify eating and drinking at the event.<\/p>\n
Anecdotes about bartering and lawmakers attending events at lobbyist homes have rippled through town over the years. POLITICO reported in 2022 that Florida Power & Light \u2014 the state\u2019s largest electric utility \u2014 was operating a private event space in downtown Tallahassee<\/a> to host lawmakers and lobbyists. One legislator was quoted saying at the time that \u201che always pays\u201d when he went there.<\/p>\n