The final lobbying numbers are in for Kentucky’s 2016 legislative session and it's another year for the record books.
As expected, expenditures eclipsed all previous sessions with businesses, associations, and other groups shelling out over $9.5 million, a nine percent uptick from the last 60-day General Assembly in 2014.
Leading the pack was the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which spent nearly $150,000 advocating for a variety of priority bills. John Schaaf with the Legislative Ethics Commission says the statewide association appears happy with the results.
"They called it one of the most successful the business community has seen," he says. "They had several what they claimed as victories, including the public-private partnership that will allow businesses and governments to work together to finance government projects."
The chamber also lobbied heavily for greater contributions to the state’s struggling retirement systems.
In addition, the Capitol also witnessed a surge in the number of registrants with 698 officially signed on to lobby in 2016. And Schaaf says the trajectory appears primed to continue into the foreseeable future.
"It is a growth industry. We seem to have more and more spent every year, more business and organizations deciding that paying lobbyists to represent them in the state Capitol is a worthwhile investment," he says.
