COLUMBUS — With Gov. John Kasich and the legislature staring down a budget hole that could be $8 billion deep, a new report highlights the big money lobbyists contribute to lawmakers who put state budgets together.

“Lobbyists – Affluence & Influence,” prepared by Ohio Citizen Action’s Money in Politics project, found that during the last legislative session, members of the Ohio Senate’s Finance Committee received 60 percent of their contributions — $1,523,365 — from lobbyists, firms that employ them and other lobbying entities such as law firms specializing in government relations.

House Finance Committee members received nearly 50 percent of their campaign contributions — $3,301,561 — from lobbying entities, the report found.

The full report can be found at http://moneyinpoliticsohio.org.

The two finance committees prepare the budgets on which the House and Senate vote. Kasich is to introduce his budget by mid-March and it must be approved before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.

With revenue for the new budget in short supply, “avoiding as many conflicts of interest as possible makes good sense,” Catherine Turcer, director of the Money in Politics Project and also a registered lobbyist, said. Ohio Citizen Action is a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots advocacy group.

Turcer made several recommendations aimed at reducing the influence or perceived influence of lobbyists on the budget and other legislation:

• Prohibiting lobbyists from acting as fundraisers for lawmakers.
• Barring lobbyists from hosting fundraisers for legislators and from soliciting contributions.
• Reinstating a “revolving door” prohibition to bar former legislators from lobbying for a specified period of time after leaving office. The state law setting the time limit at one year was tossed out in a federal lawsuit last year, said Turcer.

Restricting lobbyists does not appear to be a top priority for the new legislature. “The focus of our caucus is really job creation and revitalizing the economy,” said Mike Dittoe, spokesman for House Speaker William Batchelder III, R-Medina.

When members read the report “it is certainly possible that some piece of legislation will pop up,” relating to lobbying, said Dittoe.

Kelly McGivern, incoming president of the Ohio Lobbying Association, said the report shows that Ohio law provides transparency.

“Nobody’s hiding anything. The information is there,” said McGivern, president and CEO of the Ohio Association of Health Plans.

The state budget historically has been a magnet for lobbyists. According to the study, nearly 85 percent — 995 of 1,175 registered legislative lobbyists — reported lobbying on the operating budget during the last legislative session.