Lobbyists' spending down this session

      CARSON CITY -- Updated reports from lobbyists showed they have shelled out $35,074 so far this legislative session, but only $6,821 was spent directly on individual legislators.
      Most of the money spent by advocates in January and February was for group events. While many legislators attended the events, the amount contributed to them is included in the $6,821.
      The $35,074 is nearly $10,000 more than the amount that had been reported on a March 10 deadline for the information. But even with the updated numbers, the total is less than the $39,000 spent by lobbyists in the first two months of the 1995 session.
      Lobbyists began spending less in 1995, following the 1993 approval of a state law that for the first time required them to name names on their reports. They no longer report money they spend on one another.
      The updated January-February reports showed Sen. Ray Shaffer, D-Las Vegas, leading lawmakers with $378 worth of meals and drinks for him and his wife.
      Second on the list was Sen. Jack Regan, D-Las Vegas, at $249, followed by Assemblywoman Gene Segerblom, D-Boulder City, at $238.
      Running fourth is Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, at $213; followed by Assemblyman Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, at $212; Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, at $211; and Assemblyman Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, at $210.
      Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, and Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, got $199 apiece in meals and drinks; and Assembly Taxation Chairman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, rounded out the top 10 at $184.
      Six legislators did not take anything from lobbyists: Assemblywoman Merle Berman, R-Las Vegas; and Sens. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, Bernice Mathews, D-Sparks, Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, and Randolph Townsend, R-Reno.
      To stay at zero, some of the lawmakers wrote checks to cancel out amounts linked to them by lobbyists accounting for group event expenditures.
      The top-spending lobbyist, in combined January-February spending, was Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association at $5,630. The money was spent on the association's 75th anniversary celebration.
      Vilardo has questioned whether the entire amount should be listed on lobbyist reports because the group has a big event every year, even when the every-other-year Legislature is not meeting. But she said the event probably would not have been held in Carson City unless the lawmakers were in session.