HARRISBURG - When it became clear that the state budget was in crisis mode, three industries with much at stake in Harrisburg opened their wallets.
Gambling interests, natural-gas drillers, and tobacco companies have since January spent more than $4.5 million combined on lobbying efforts, according to expense reports filed last week with the state.
Those industries were among the few winners in a budget ravaged by the recession.
Casinos are poised to introduce poker and other newly legalized table games. Natural-gas drillers and tobacco companies fought off new taxes.
Six-figure lobbying campaigns are not new in Pennsylvania's capital. And it's hard to know the extent to which such activity changes legislators' minds. Even so, critics say the dollar amounts speak for themselves.
Industries "wouldn't spend money like that if it didn't work," said Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause of Pennsylvania, a watchdog group.
Lobbying expenditures are, in Kauffman's view, "a key indicator of how Harrisburg really works: Invest a lot of money, and you are going to have a lot more clout at the bargaining table."
Comparing recent expenditures with past lobbying efforts is difficult. Pennsylvania didn't enact its disclosure law until late 2006, long after most states. And unless they provide gifts or lodging, those who try to influence state decision-makers must report little detail other than the totals spent.
Arthur Zaretsky, for one, isn't shy about describing the details: He hosted receptions and made his case to legislators over food and cigars - the latter being his business.
Zaretsky never thought he would need a lobbyist until it became clear to him this year that Gov. Rendell and Democratic legislators had set their sights on his livelihood. They wanted to help close the budget gap by taxing cigars.
Zaretsky, owner of Famous Smoke Shop, an Easton Internet and mail-order retailer of premium cigars, hired Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott L.L.C., a Pittsburgh law firm with a Harrisburg office.
"I needed to educate the politicians about exactly what it is we do and how many people we employ and that putting on a tax would not be a good idea," he said.
Eventually, Republican legislative leaders defeated the proposed cigar tax, along with one proposed for smokeless products such as chewing tobacco and snuff. Left standing was a new tax on little cigars - cigarillos.
In all, tobacco interests large and small spent nearly $1.5 million on lobbying from January through Sept. 30, records show.
Reynolds American Inc., whose subsidiary Conwood Co. is the nation's second-largest producer of smokeless tobacco products, devoted the most - $670,658.
Lobbying in the capital takes many forms - meetings with legislators, letter-writing, and "blast" e-mail campaigns orchestrated by lobbyists. There are studies and polls and white papers commissioned by lobbyists.
"There is nothing wrong with lobbying per se. It is just delivering information. It's valuable," said Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware). "The problem comes when lobbyists try to do more than inform, try to ingratiate themselves to you. And that happens a lot in Harrisburg."
To natural-gas drillers, too, the writing was on the wall as early as February. That was when Rendell announced in his budget address that he was pushing for a new tax on the odorless, colorless gas found deep below Pennsylvania's soil.
Rendell said the tax would bring in about $100 million this year, thanks to what he called the "gold rush" of new drilling for natural gas in the vast underground formation known as the Marcellus Shale.
But in late August, the governor - to the surprise of some of his aides - said drilling executives had convinced him that imposing the tax this year would stunt the growth of the industry. Rendell said he would abandon his push until next year.
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