KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): Genting Malaysia Bhd's (GenM) unit Genting New York LLC (GenNY) ranked fourth among top spending lobbying entities in the state of New York last year, with US$1.898 million forked out for the practice, according to the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE).
According to JCOPE's 2021 annual report, GenNY's lobbying focused on gaming and was among the many filers who were involved in the state's third most lobbied bill in 2021 — the New York Senate Bill S2509 (the budget bill).
"That bill, signed on April 19, 2021, provides, among other things, for the regulation of sports wagering and mobile sports wagering and implements a tax on sports wagering gross revenue," it added.
Meanwhile, in terms of lobbying entities ranked by payments to retained lobbyists — a person or organisation engaged to lobby for the benefit of an unaffiliated client — GenNY topped the list with its US$1.898 paid to seven different retained lobbyists.
The commission noted that GenNY's lobbying efforts, which focused on gaming, shared nothing in common with other top lobbying entities.
It said that labour was the biggest focus among the top 10 spending lobbying entities — with it being a large focus of Greater New York Hospital Association (which ranked first on the lobbying entities by total spending list), American Association of Retired Persons (third), NYS Nurses Association (sixth), NYS Trial Lawyers Association (seventh), NYS United Teachers (eighth), and Doordash (ninth).
Notably, the JCOPE also said that the trend in lobbying spending in the state continued to shift more towards compensations — salaries, fees, gifts, payments or any other thing of value paid or owed to lobbyists in exchange for lobbying, or services related to lobbying activity — and away from expenses — which by themselves do not constitute lobbying, but when used as part of a lobbying effort become reportable expenses — in 2021.
It said lobbying spending increased to US$292.9 million in 2021, a 9.2% rise from US$268.1 million in 2020. It said compensations paid to retained and in-house lobbyists climbed to US$270.4 million, a US$21.7 million jump from the US$248.7 million logged in 2020.
"Compensation constituted 92.3% of total lobbying spending in 2021, while lobbying expenses accounted for only 7.7%.
"The 10 highest-spending lobbying entities followed the industry-wide trend toward proportionally greater spending on compensation for the second consecutive year, with 57.4% spent on compensation and 42.6% on expenses," it added.
At noon break on Wednesday (July 20), shares in GenM were up three sen or 1.06% to RM2.85, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM16.92 billion.