Topeka ? Legislators moved close Friday to passing a bill requiring less public reporting about lobbyists’ purchases of meals and small gifts to members of the House and Senate.

The bill, drafted by House and Senate negotiators, would exempt meals worth $15 or less from a 4-year-old rule requiring lobbyists to report all legislators, spouses and staffers whom they treat to food and beverages, except at large group events.

Had the $15 exemption been in effect last year, about half of the 10,600 meals and small gifts disclosed by lobbyists would have gone unreported, according to the state Governmental Ethics Commission.

The House passed the compromise bill on a 63-58 vote, but senators left for the Legislature’s annual recess without taking action, leaving their vote until after lawmakers reconvene on April 28.

“We just wanted to take a little more time,” said Sen. Barbara Allen, R-Prairie Village, the chamber’s lead negotiator. “We didn’t want to rush it through.”

The House had preferred a greater loosening of the rules, passing a bill last week that would have required a report only if a meal cost more than $25. The Senate’s version would have left the reporting requirement unchanged.

House members said their aim had been simply to reduce paperwork and make the law less burdensome on lobbyists.

But Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had criticized the effort, saying it would reduce the public’s access to information about free food and beverages enjoyed by legislators.

Rep. Don Myers, the chief House negotiator, called the compromise measure “a good bill.”

“I think we’ve finally arrived at something everybody can live with,” said Myers, R-Derby.

Myers and others who argued for the $15 exemption said reports that list every expenditure on a legislator’s behalf, no matter how small, give the public largely meaningless information.

But Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, who voted against the compromise bill, said narrowing the required disclosures is “the wrong thing to do.”

“We ought to be doing things to encourage disclosure,” said Davis, D-Lawrence.

Both chambers had agreed on another provision in the bill reviving the right of elected officials to spend money raised for one campaign to seek another office.

That provision was a response to a December decision by the Kansas Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed by an unsuccessful Wichita mayoral candidate. The court ruled such transfers illegal because they are not specifically authorized by the state’s Campaign Finance Act.

The practice of transferring money from one campaign fund to another went unchallenged until last year’s Wichita mayoral race, won by former Republican state Rep. Carlos Mayans. An opponent went to court after Mayans transferred $50,000 from his legislative campaign fund to his mayoral campaign.

Lobbying and campaign finance changes are House Sub for SB 376.

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