A: Registered principals must report to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission each bill, budget bill subject, proposed rule, and topic on which the organization makes a lobbying communication. (Wis. Stats. §13.67[1]) The principal, through an authorized individual, must report the bill, budget bill subject, proposed rule, or topic to the Commission within 15 days of the first lobbying communication. This requirement includes reporting of prospective or suggested legislation that has been discussed with a state public official; in other words, the support of or opposition to legislation that has not yet been created. Lobbying on the budget bill must be reported by subject and not under the bill number.
Registered principals may be required to report on the same issue more than once. For example, Principal A is interested in creating a sales tax exemption for the sale of pet food. This would be reported as a topic. Later, the sales tax exemption gets introduced as a legislative proposal. Now Principal A must report an interest in that legislative proposal. And if the sales tax exemption eventually became part of the budget, Principal A would have to report an interest in the specific budget bill subject the issue is under. However, making multiple communications on the same issue in the same category does not necessitate multiple reports.