How much did Don Beason really make last year?

If Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel is correct, then most lobbyists' clients report from 15 to 30 percent of their payments to the state.

According to a report from Democracy North Carolina, Beason reported $145,521 from 16 clients in 2007.

That would put his actual income at between $485,070 and $970,140.

Of course, Beason is being investigated for underreporting his income — and we use this word to mean reporting below the traditional and reasonable amount used by other state lobbyists — so the real pay could be much higher.

As noted previously, Beason may have reported about 16 percent of his pay from the Albemarle Mental Health Center, five percent from IBM in 2004 and potentially 10 percent from BB&T.

Don Beason is being investigated for using the consulting loophole.

As previously noted, the lobbyists must tell the Secretary of State how much they are being paid to argue a special interest's cause before the legislature under state law.

But they do not have to disclose any secondary contracts for political consulting or other non-lobbying work.

Once the state's top lobbyist, Beason often broke up his contracts this way, possibly underreporting his pay from BB&T, IBM and Progress Energy.

His contract with BB&T was exactly one-tenth what he earned from Catawba County during a similar period. (Contracts with government agencies would not benefit from the loophole because they are public anyway.)

A special agent with the Secretary of State said in a court filing that the Albemarle Mental Health Center also underreported its payments.

"The Center was being directed by Donald R. Beason to report a significantly reduced amount and not the actual amount of compensation," agent John Lynch wrote in a court filing.

An audit of the mental health center first showed the discrepancy.

What happened to Don Beason's clients?

When the once-top lobbyist resigned his practice last year over a shady loan to House Speaker Jim Black, his lucrative list of clients was up for grabs.

By Dome's count, seven of the 16 clients did nothing. BB&T, Cingular Wireless, Albemarle Mental Health Center, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Sigma Corp., the Association of Settlement Companies, and the Carolina Ballet have no registered lobbyists during the current session.

That may be because they don't face any pending bills in a short session devoted to the budget. 

Three clients still employ Beason's son, Mark, along with other lobbyists: The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services, AT&T North Carolina and S&M Brands.

Two clients, the city of Hickory and Catawba County, went with a new team of Jack Cozort, Kevin Leonard and noted lobbyist Alexander "Sandy" Sands.

Among the other top clients, Progress Energy went with noted lobbyist Zeb Alley, John Bode and Kathy Hawkins; while IBM went with former lieutenant governor Dennis Wicker and a team of eight lobbyists. Colonial Life Insurance hired Glenn Jernigan and the N.C. Railroad Co. hired Michelle Frazier and John McMillan.

State Rep. Thom Tillis has souped up his e-mail newsletter.

In his regular life, the Huntersville Republican is a management consultant for IBM, so he was a little disappointed at the options for a standard legislative newsletter when he was elected last year.

Tillis shopped around, and now uses a program called Constant Contact. It tracks how many people open the e-mail and how many of them clicked to links for more information on certain subjects.

He's learned that about 36 percent of his contacts read the newsletter, and he has a pretty good sense of what topics interest them. It also tracks which e-mail addresses blocked the newsletter, so he can narrow his list down.

Tillis said he's surprised the software isn't more popular among his colleagues.

"The problem is how long people are in office," he said. "They're not necessarily inclined to make the investment in technology the way you might in business."

Did Don Beason report all of his pay from the Albemarle Mental Health Center?

At N.C. Policy Watch, Chris Fitzsimon noticed a discrepancy between the payments for lobbying services reported to the Secretary of State and those in a state audit.

The audit (Table 5, page 35) shows a total of $76,082 for "lobbyist services" in fiscal year 2006.

During that time, Beason and his son, Mark, represented Albemarle. But state lobbying forms only list payments of $5,224 from January to September of 2005, $3,201 from September to December, and $4,000 from January to July of 2006.

That's only $12,425 — just a sixth of what was paid per the audit — and it's still high since the fiscal year likely runs from July to June.

As we've noted before, Beason also underreported payments from BB&T, IBM and Progress Energy.

IBM hired Don Beason as a consultant.

A spokeswoman for the computer company said she could not talk about the specifics of the contract, but she did say that he was not hired strictly to lobby the legislature this year.

"Our records show that he was hired as a consultant, not a lobbyist," said Gretchen McWhorter, communications manager for IBM in the Southeast.

She said that usually prefers to deal directly with legislators, rather than hire a lobbyist.

But state records show that Big Blue paid Beason $4,200 in 2007 for lobbying — one-eighth what Catawba County paid him for lobbying in the same time period.

That's likely because of a loophole in state law that allows corporate consulting contracts to be kept private, but requires disclosure of lobbying fees.

In its 2004 contract, IBM noted that only 5 percent of its $60,000 payment to Beason was for lobbying.

AT&T North Carolina will not reveal any information about its lobbying.

When contacted by Dome this afternoon, a spokesman for the phone company would not discuss any details of Don Beason's contract with it.

"We just don't discuss the details of what is in the contract," said public affairs director Clifton Metcalf Jr.

As previously noted, Catawba County paid Beason $32,903 in the first half of this year — 11 times the $2,940 that AT&T listed.

But that may be because the corporate contract used a loophole in state law to avoid listing his full salary.

Under at least two other contracts with IBM and Progress Energy, Beason was paid for consulting as well as lobbying, though only the lobbying salaries were reported.

Don Beason's biggest contract was with Catawba County.

According to a review of his client list this year, the once-top lobbyist was paid nearly $33,000 to represent a county of 151,000 people having a water dispute with its neighbors.

That's almost four times what Progress Energy paid him, almost eight times the size of his IBM contract and more than 11 times what he earned from AT&T.

Only one other corporate client, Sigma Corp., came close with its $27,000 contract. 

As a public entity, Catawba could not pay Beason with a second contract — ostensibly for something other than lobbying — that it did not have to report to the Secretary of State. 

So its contract is likely close to what Beason actually charges. That means his major corporate clients, including Progress Energy, IBM, AT&T, Colonial Life Insurance and  BB&T, likely paid him the rest with secondary contracts. (At least one did so in a prior year.)

In fact, BB&T's $3,290.38 payments from Jan. 1 to June 30 are exactly one-tenth the $32,903.80 he earned from Catawba in that same time frame.

Don Beason earned $60,000 from a contract with IBM in 2004.

But only a fraction of those payments were given for lobbying, according to a disclosure form filed with the Secretary of State.

The form includes non-lobbying expenses, which are not normally reported by special interests. The form lists the full amount as Beason's earnings from Jan. 1 to July 18, 2004, with this handwritten foonote:

* estimate 5% of fee was for lobbying. the rest was a marketing consulting fee.

The form is signed by John A. Bernardin Jr., a South Carolina-based employee of IBM at the time.

Some campaign finance reformers have said that non-lobbying contracts are used by special interests to reward lobbyists beyond their reported salaries.

"There's definitely something going on," said Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina.

Hat Tip: Dan Kane