Jazz tickets too risky a perk

Once the cornerstone of lobbyist gift giving, Jazz tickets are now seen as too risky a perk by many wary Utah legislators.
Good seats cost more than $50, and that means lobbyists have to publicly disclose who accepted the freebie.
But some tickets are just too good to pass up.
Last week, four state senators accepted courtside seats from well-known lobbyist Spencer Stokes, who represents such entities as Salt Lake County government and radioactive waste disposal company EnergySolutions.
The tickets were so good that West Valley City Democratic Sen. Brent Goodfellow took an elbow from Jazz forward Matt Harpring, who was chasing after a loose ball.
Goodfellow accepted the bruise and the gift, as did Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble.
Bountiful GOP Sen. Dan Eastman rounded out the quartet. But he paid Stokes for the ticket.
The cost: $500.
"Because of the price of this seat, I just thought it was appropriate that I pay for it," Eastman said. "I was always taught to avoid the appearance of evil, and if there is some there we ought to avoid it."
Bramble shrugs off concerns about perception. He says he routinely disagrees with Stokes and that the Jazz game will not buy his vote.
The tickets highlight an annual debate among legislators about whether they should drop the $50 disclosure limit, ban gifts altogether or keep the system the way it is.
The Legislature will hear these ideas again this year, but the proposals are not expected to become law. Not with opponents like Bramble.
He argues that any gift below $50 would never buy a lawmaker's vote and argues publicly disclosing such gifts would only lead to news accounts aiming to embarrass public officials.
But Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, who is sponsoring a bill to drop the disclosure threshold from $50 to $10, says his opponents have another motivation.
"Legislators do not want to show up on lobbyist disclosure forms," he said.
Lobbyists say lawmakers fall into two categories.
"The guys who have been around longer tend not to really care, but the new guys are scared to death of being reported," said one lobbyist, who asked not to be named for fear of harming relationships with legislators.
Lobbyists have become masters of spending just under the $50 reporting threshold, and when they do go over, some legislators pay the difference so they won't end up on the reports.
As for this week's highly visible ticket giveaway, Bramble said he wouldn't mind Stokes' reporting his name. He had never sat courtside before and couldn't pass up the opportunity, he said.