State and Federal Communications’ Experts Answer Your Questions

Question: I heard the North Dakota Ethics Commission recently posted an advisory opinion regarding permitted gifts. How does the advisory opinion affect individuals with lobbying activities in the state?

Answer:  On March 7, 2025, the ethics commission published an advisory opinion dealing with the permissibility of covering a legislator’s meal when attending an educational conference where attendees pay for their meals and the host provides an acrylic plaque for attending the conference to the legislator.
Generally, the North Dakota Constitution prohibits lobbyists from giving gifts to public officials. Public officials include any elected or appointed official of the state’s executive and legislative branch, including members of the ethics commission, members of the governor’s cabinet, or employees of the legislative branch. While North Dakota only requires individuals to register as a lobbyist for legislative lobbying, for purposes of the gift law, the commission reiterated the definition includes attempts to influence public official action or decisions that occur outside the legislative process. Attempts to secure passage, amendment, or defeat of any administrative rule or regulation by any department, agency, or body of the state’s executive branch and attempts to influence public official action or decisions would be considered lobbying.

To be permissible, an annual conference must be a private or public social and educational event designed to inform the attendees about a topic, issue, or problem and provide helpful and thorough review based upon unique knowledge, skills, or research. The difference between these two types of events is whether the event is open to the public or by invitation only. The event must occur in the State of North Dakota and include participants who are non-lobbyists and non-public officials. Finally, the event sponsors must also file an event notice form with the commission prior to the event taking place, preferably no less than a week in advance. The notice form is submitted electronically on the following website: www.ethicscommission.nd.gov/meeting-notice. For a gift or thing of value to be awarded at a private or public social and educational event the gift must not derive independent resale value and be mostly sentimental rather than intrinsic in value.

If you or your organization plan to provide anything of value in North Dakota a permissibility analysis should be done prior to providing the gift. The state gift law may affect individuals even if they are not required to register with the state and must provide notice to the commission in advance of the event.

The information from this response can easily be found on our website in the Lobbying Compliance section of the United States Compliance Laws publication. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

Q: Since Minnesota updated their lobbying law and the changes went into effect at the start of 2024, how will the changes practically affect how lobbyists register and file reports?

A: Minnesota passed legislation affecting lobbying registration and reporting that went into effect on January 1, 2024. To correspond with the changes the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) has updated their lobbyist registration, termination statement, and reporting forms.

Lobbyists should be aware the registration threshold has increased from $250 to more than $3,000 for individuals who spend personal funds to influence government action. Calculating the threshold does not include an individual’s own traveling expenses and membership dues. While the increased threshold allows individuals to track their activities until they reach the higher amount the law expanded the scope of local government lobbying which could lead to more activities being included in determining your registration requirements.

The scope of local government lobbying was expanded by amending the definition of lobbyist to replace all references to metropolitan governmental unit with political subdivision. A political subdivision includes the metropolitan council, a metropolitan agency, including the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission, Metropolitan Airports Commission, and Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, and a municipality, including a county, town, city, school district or other municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state authorized by law to enter into contracts. Communication with local officials of a political subdivision will need to be tracked and included in calculating your threshold. The new form released by CFB reflects these changes. Lobbyists will also be required to list the general lobbying categories of interest on registrations.

On the reporting and termination forms, lobbyists will no longer be required to report disbursements. Instead, individuals must affirm whether legislative, administrative, or local governmental action occurred during the reporting period. For each type of governmental action, the lobbyist must include at least one general lobbying category and up to four specific subjects of interest lobbied during the reporting period. For administrative actions, individuals must also include the agency lobbied and revisor number if applicable. Lobbyists must continue to report the amount and nature of each gift, item, or benefit $5 or more, given or paid to any public official, an employee of the Legislature, or a local official, by the lobbyist, an employer, or employee of the lobbyist, and each original source of money in excess of $500 in any year used for the purpose of lobbying.

While the CFB has not released an updated form for the annual report, the new lobbying law requires the total amount spent on each lobbying type during a calendar year to be rounded to the nearest $9,000 instead of the current $20,000. We expect the CFB to release a new form closer to the annual reporting due date.

The information from this response can easily be found on our website in the Lobbying Compliance section of the United States Compliance Laws publication.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

On June 17, the Connecticut Legislature adjourned a special session after passing bills related to the state budget and recreational marijuana use.

The cannabis bill allows applicants from communities affected by high drug-related issues to acquire business licenses.

If signed by Gov. Lamont, Connecticut will become the 19th state to legalize marijuana.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

The New York State Legislature adjourned on June 11.

During the legislative session lawmakers introduced and failed to pass bills to ban corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and limited liability partnerships from making political contributions; create a restricted period for vendor contributions; and increase required lobbyist disclosures of political contributions and business relationships with public officials.

The Senate is expected to return later this summer regarding the confirmation of state appointments.

The Assembly is expected to continue an impeachment inquiry through the summer months regarding sexual harassment allegations made against the governor.

On June 8, Gov. Janet Mills signed Legislative Document 670 to increase lobbyist registration fees and Legislative Document 1377 amending campaign finance definitions.

Legislative Document 670 raises registration fees for lobbyists from $200 to $250 and lobbyist associates from $100 to $125.

Additionally, Legislative Document 670 allows employers to apply for a fee waiver and the commission may waive the fees in whole or in part if the commission determines an economic hardship to the applicant.

The registration fee increases were proposed by the ethics commission to cover operation costs for the lobbyist regulatory program and to improve its e-filing and public access system.

Legislative Document 1377 amends the definition of independent expenditure and allows a person or committee to request a commission determination that an expenditure is not an independent expenditure within seven days of disseminating the communication.

The bills go into effect 90 days after the end of the Legislature’s first special session.

The Pennsylvania Speaker of the House announced a special election for House District 113 on November 2, the same day as the general election.

The district seat became vacant former Rep. Marty Flynn won a special election to join the state Senate.

The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Flynn’s term until the end of 2022.

The Connecticut General Assembly adjourned sine die on June 9.

During the session, lawmakers passed House Bill 6574 relating to revisions of the state ethics code.

The bill exempts gifts from an individual’s or spouse’s grandparents from the law prohibiting gifts from restricted donors; clarifies the gift disclosure requirement by a person doing business with a department or agency; and requires executive branch regulatory agencies to annually file a list of positions subject to revolving door provisions.

If signed by the governor, House Bill 6574 becomes effective October 1.

This affects lobbying reporting.

The monthly employer activity report required any month the General Assembly is in regular session is due July 10.

The Vermont General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 21.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 legislative session was conducted remotely.

During the session, lawmakers failed to pass proposed ethics bills including House Bill 64 prohibiting gifts to legislators from lobbying entities.

Lawmakers are expecting to lift all COVID-19 restrictions by the summer and resume an in-person legislative session for 2022.

The Concord City Clerk’s Office announced a special election for City Council Ward 4 to be held on Tuesday, July 13.

The seat is vacant after former Councilor Meredith Hatfield resigned her position due to moving out of the city.

The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Hatfield’s term until the end of 2021.

The New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics appointed Sanford Berland as the new executive director.

Berland previously served as state judge in both the Court of Claims and Supreme Court of New York.

Before his appointment, the position had been vacant for two years.

Berland becomes the fourth executive director in the ethics agency’s history.

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea announced a special election for Providence City Council Ward 15 on July 6.

If required, a special primary election is scheduled for June 8.

The city council seat is vacant after Sabina Matos was confirmed and sworn in as lieutenant governor of the state earlier this month.

The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Matos’s term until the end of 2022.

The Maine Legislature adjourned sine die Tuesday, March 30.

During the session, the Ethics Commission proposed Legislative Document 670 to increase the annual registration fees for lobbyists from $200 to $250 and lobbyist associates from $100 to $125.

The bill would have raised lobbyist registration fees for the first time in over 20 years but did not pass in the first regular session.

The Legislature also scheduled a special session to convene on April 28 regarding a proposed supplemental budget.

This does affect lobbyist reporting.

A registered lobbyist is required to file monthly reports beginning the month they register through the lobbying year.

However, after the legislative session is concluded, if the lobbyist anticipates no further lobbying for a client, the lobbyist may file a request for a non-session waiver with their final monthly report for the session.

On March 22, Kim Janey became the acting Mayor of Boston.

Under the city charter, Janey who served as the City Council President, becomes the acting mayor when a vacancy occurs mid-term.

The seat became vacant when Marty Walsh formally resigned on Monday after being confirmed as the new U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Janey will serve the remainder of the year and a general election will be held in November to fill the position.

The Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives announced a special election for House District 60 will be held on May 18 during the upcoming primary election.

The seat is vacant after Jeff Pyle announced his retirement due to health issues from battling cancer and recovering from a stroke in 2020.

Candidates for the office will be selected by a process designated by their respective political parties.

The winner of the special election will serve for the remainder of Pyle’s term until the end of 2022.