(A) Except as otherwise provided by § 2-17-90(E), each lobbyist‘s principal, no later than June thirtieth and January thirty-first of each year, must file a report with the State Ethics Commission covering that lobbyist’s principal’s expenditures attributable to lobbying during that filing period. The filing periods are from January first to May thirty-first for the June thirtieth report, and are from June first to December thirty-first for the January thirty-first report. Any lobbying activity not reflected on the June thirtieth report and not reported on a statement of termination pursuant to § 2-17-25(C) must be reported no later than January thirty-first of the succeeding year. Each report must be in a form prescribed by the State Ethics Commission and be limited to and contain:

(1) the full name, address, and telephone number of the reporting lobbyist’s principal;

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 2-17-35

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Covered agency actions: means the proposal, drafting, development, consideration, amendment, withdrawal, or promulgation of a regulation under Article 1, Chapter 23 of Title 1 of the 1976 Code. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Covered gubernatorial actions: means :

    (a) gubernatorial approval or veto of legislation;

    (b) gubernatorial consideration or issuance of any executive order;

    (c) gubernatorial consideration or making of any appointment; or

    (d) gubernatorial consideration of or the decision to award any grant derived from federal or other funds or from any source. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Expenditure: means a purchase, payment, loan, forgiveness of a loan, an advance, in-kind contribution or expenditure, a deposit, transfer of funds, gift of money or anything of value for any purpose, and a payment to a lobbyist for compensation, for expenses, or lobbying, including the direct payment of expenses incurred at the request or suggestion of a lobbyist. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • Income: means the receipt or promise of any consideration, whether or not legally enforceable, including attorney's fees attributable to lobbying. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Legislation: means :

    (a) bills, resolutions, amendments, reports, legislative acts, vetoes, nominations, rules, and regulations pending or proposed in either the House or Senate;

    (b) any other matter which may be the subject of action by either house; or

    (c) the appointment of committees of conference and free conference by the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the President of the Senate. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Lobbying: means promoting or opposing through direct communication with public officials or public employees:

    (a) the introduction or enactment of legislation before the General Assembly or the committees or members of the General Assembly;

    (b) covered gubernatorial actions;

    (c) covered agency actions; or

    (d) consideration of the election or appointment of an individual to a public office elected or appointed by the General Assembly. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Lobbyist: means any person who is employed, appointed, or retained, with or without compensation, by another person to influence by direct communication with public officials or public employees: (i) the action or vote of any member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, or any other statewide constitutional officer concerning any legislation; (ii) the vote of any public official on any state agency, board, or commission concerning any covered agency actions; or (iii) the action of the Governor or any member of his executive staff concerning any covered gubernatorial actions. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Person: means an individual, a partnership, committee, an association, a corporation, labor organization, or any other organization or group of persons. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Public official: means any elected or appointed official of the State, including candidates for any such state office. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
  • Voluntary membership organization: means an organization composed of persons who are members thereof on a voluntary basis and who, as a condition of membership, are required to make regular payments to the organization. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10

(2) an identification of each person who acted as a lobbyist on behalf of the reporting lobbyist’s principal during the covered period;

(3) the official name, number, or description, designated by the House or Senate or by an agency, of legislation, covered agency actions, or covered gubernatorial actions for which its lobbyist engaged in lobbying during the covered period;

(4) the identification of each person to whom income attributable to the lobbyist’s lobbying is paid or promised and the amount of the income attributable to the lobbyist’s lobbying paid or promised;

(5)(a) a complete and itemized account of all amounts expended by a lobbyist’s principal for lobbying during the covered period. The totals must be segregated by the amounts expended for office expenses, rent, utilities, supplies, and compensation of support personnel attributable to lobbying covered under the provisions of this chapter;

(b) any expenditure directly or indirectly related to lobbying if expended while a lobbyist’s principal or his lobbyist is engaged in the general course of lobbying;

(c) the name of each public official on whose behalf a lobbyist’s principal initiated or made expenditures pursuant to § 2-17-90 and a complete and itemized account of the amount expended by the lobbyist’s principal for each public official;

(d) any reimbursements of or expenditures for actual expenses as allowed in § 2-17-100;

(6) the name of each member of the judiciary on whose behalf a lobbyist’s principal initiated or made expenditures and a complete and itemized account of the amount expended by the lobbyist’s principal for each member of the judiciary;

(7) a statement detailing any direct business association of a lobbyist’s principal with any current member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, any other statewide constitutional officer, any public official of any state agency who engaged in covered agency actions, or any of their employees. For the purposes of this item, direct business association does not include:

(a) ownership interests held by a lobbyist or a lobbyist’s principal and a member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, any other statewide constitutional officer, any public official of any state agency who engaged in covered agency actions, or any of their employees in the same corporation or partnership unless the interest of each exceeds five percent of the total shares outstanding or partnership interests in the entity;

(b) an interest held by a member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, any other statewide constitutional officer, any public official of any state agency who engaged in covered agency actions, or any of their employees in a partnership or corporation represented by a lobbyist or a lobbyist’s principal if the interest is less than five percent of the total shares outstanding or partnership interests in such entity; or

(c) any commercial transaction between a lobbyist or lobbyist’s principal and a member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, any other statewide constitutional officer, any public official of any state agency who engaged in covered agency actions, or any of their employees in which the fair market value of the goods transferred or services rendered is paid;

(8) any contribution, as defined by § 8-13-1300(7), made by the lobbyist’s principal to any candidate or public official, including an itemization of:

(a) the name and address of the public official or candidate to whom the contribution was made;

(b) the amount of the contribution;

(c) the date of the contribution;

(9) in the case of a voluntary membership organization, dues, fees, or other amounts payable to the organization during any calendar year from a member need be recorded only if the contribution to the organization is more than five hundred dollars and more than twenty percent of the total contributions of the organization during that calendar year.

(B) A lobbyist’s principal may comply with the requirements of subsection (A) by attaching a copy of the information submitted by any lobbyists employed, retained, or appointed by the lobbyist’s principal if the information requested from the lobbyist’s principal is the same as the information supplied by the lobbyist pursuant to § 2-17-30(A).

(C) Where total amounts are required to be reported, totals must be reported both for the period covered and for the entire calendar year to date.

(D) If the State is a lobbyist’s principal, the State is exempt from filing a report except as provided in § 2-17-40(A).

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