At least $3.8 million was spent to influence Montana lawmakers’ work during the first three months of 2019. That’s with one more month’s worth of lobbyist spending reports for the 2019 legislative session yet to be filed. The deadline for that is today.
Lobbying dollars can include things like paying a lawyer to speak against a bill in a public hearing, putting up advertisements backing a piece of legislation or picking up the tab when discussing a specific policy with a lawmaker over a steak dinner.