HARRISBURG — Lt. Gov. Robert Jubelirer (R., Blair) and his chief of staff each got a $400 ticket to the 2002 Super Bowl in New Orleans, courtesy of Anheuser-Busch.
Rep. Susan Laughlin (D., Allegheny) was one of several lawmakers to receive a $2,400 season pass to the slopes from the Pennsylvania Ski Areas Association during 2000.
And Rep. Tom Gannon (R., Delaware) got a pair of tickets to a performance of Nutcracker in December 2000, a $568 gift from the Pennsylvania Ballet.
FOR THE RECORD - CLEARING THE RECORD, PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 6, 2002, FOLLOWS: In a story published Aug. 29, The Inquirer reported that Lt. Gov. Robert Jubelirer (R., Blair) and his chief of staff each received a $400 ticket to the 2002 Super Bowl from Anheuser-Busch. That information was included in lobbying disclosure forms filed in Harrisburg by Anheuser-Busch. In a subsequent statement, the brewing company says the ticket information in the documents was incorrect; the tickets were offered to the two officials, but not accepted.
But the public might not be able to view such information about state government much longer now that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has nullified the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
In a 3-3 decision Monday, the justices let stand an earlier ruling by an appellate court that found the law unconstitutional because it applies to lawyers who are also lobbyists. Under the state Constitution, only the judicial branch may govern attorneys.
The decision apparently leaves Pennsylvania as the only state in the nation with no regulations on lobbying, legal experts said. Little else seemed clear as state officials grappled with a host of practical questions raised by the ruling.
"This is wild stuff," said Alan Rosenthal, professor of public policy at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, an expert on ethics laws. "Every place I know, lawyers ... have to file their expenses like anyother lobbyists."
"Do the records remain public?" asked John J. Contino, executive director of the state Ethics Commission, which administered the disclosure law. "With an unconstitutional act, it's not clear whether we can even keep the records. Where do we go from here?"
Already, the ethics commission had been "in a semi-holding pattern" for the last two years, Contino said, delaying enforcement actions since the disclosure law was first challenged in court. While the required lobbyist registrations and quarterly spending reports have been collected, the commission has not audited them, he said.
Vincent Dopko, chief counsel for the ethics panel, said commissioners have until Sept. 6 to decide whether to join the state Senate and Attorney General Mike Fisher in asking the high court to reconsider its decision. If those efforts fail, the commission will have to answer the tricky legal question of what happens to the records already filed.
"What do you do with the public information that's already out there?" Dopko said. "That's like asking, 'Once the paste is out of the tube, can it be put back in?' "
