I spent some time Friday afternoon browsing through lobbyist’s expenditure reports filed with the State Ethics Commission. The most recent reports, filed by lobbyists and the organizations that employ them, cover lobbying costs during January and February, were due March 31.

The disclosure forms are available online on the commission’s web site, but are set up in a way that doesn’t allow easy moving through a series of documents. But if you go to the commission’s office, you can just browse through a large binder containing all reports for a given period.

The reporting requirements, including descriptions and examples of expenses that must be reported, can be found spelled out in the Lobbying Registration and Reporting Manual (see pages 3-5 on expenses to be reported), or the instructions that accompany the disclosure forms.

Basically, if you meet the criteria to register as a lobbyist, you’re required to disclose all expenditures made for lobbying purposes, direct and indirect. If you host a meeting to encourage other people to contact legislators on behalf of your lobbying cause, costs of that meeting have to be disclosed. If you prepare printed information to distribute to legislators and staff, disclosed. The list seems pretty complete, at least in terms of what should be disclosed.

Okay, okay, okay. Enough background. What did I find?

The most important thing, in my view, is what I didn’t find. Very few lobbyists or organizations report any expenses other than fees paid directly to the lobbyists.

If these disclosure reports are taken at face value, it would appear that almost no lobbyists have cell phones. Nor do they drive cars or incur parking fees when at the Capitol. They never have lunch or dinner meetings, either with other lobbyists, legislators or staff, their own employers, interest groups, or others. They never buy a beer for themselves or others while talking business or making contacts. Few give gifts, although I wonder where all those things come from on the legislature’s opening day.

Few ever attend meetings, conferences, conventions, or banquets for lobbying purposes. And only very, very rarely does any lobbyist have lunch or dinner with a legislator or staffer where the total bill was more than $25.

I’m driven to the conclusion that the lobbyist disclosures are simply not credible, except in the case of fees being paid directly to lobbyists.

So with that huge caveat in mind, I did go ahead and make a list of the biggest spenders. The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii topped the list with lobbying costs of $33,353 during the first two months of the year, closely followed by Altria (Philip Morris) at $31,609. Also in the top five were Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning LLC, which is lobbying for $30 million in special purpose revenue bonds, which spent $25,414; the General Contractors Association ($22,950), and the Hawaii Association for Justice, a trial lawyers organization, $21,250.

I compiled a preliminary list of the top 30 lobbying organizations, in terms of reported expenditures.

Just out of the top five was Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of the national evangelical group, based in Colorado Springs. THe organization contributed $20,000 to Hawaii Family Forum to fund its opposition to HB444.

More on all this later.