13.62 Definitions. In this subchapter:

(1) “Administrative action" means the proposal, drafting, development, consideration, promulgation, amendment, repeal or rejection by any agency of any rule promulgated under ch. 227.

(2) “Agency" means any board, commission, department, office, society, institution of higher education, council, or committee in the state government, or any authority created in subch. II of ch. 114 or in ch. 231, 232, 233, 234, 237, 238, or 279, except that the term does not include a council or committee of the legislature.

(3) “Agency official" means a member, officer, employee or consultant of any agency who as part of such person's official responsibilities participates in any administrative action in other than a solely clerical, secretarial or ministerial capacity.

(4m) “Budget bill subject" means a subject specified by the commission that is included in the executive budget bill or bills introduced under s. 16.47.

(5) “Business entity" means any organization or enterprise operated for profit, including but not limited to a proprietorship, partnership, firm, business trust, joint venture, syndicate, corporation, limited liability company or association.

(5g) “Candidate" has the meaning given under s. 11.0101 (1).

(5j) “Candidate committee" has the meaning given in s. 11.0101 (2).

(5m) “Commission" means the ethics commission.

(5r) “Communications media" means newspapers, periodicals, commercial billboards, and radio and television stations, including community antenna television stations.

(5u) “Contribution" has the meaning given in s. 11.0101 (8).

(6) “Elective state official" means any person who holds an elective state office as defined in s. 5.02 (23) or has been elected to an elective state office but has not yet taken office. A person who is appointed to fill a vacant elective state office is an elective state official.

(8) “Legislative action" means the development, drafting, introduction, consideration, modification, adoption, rejection, review, enactment or defeat of any bill, resolution, amendment, report, nomination, proposed administrative rule or other matter by the legislature or by either house or any committee, subcommittee, joint or select committee thereof, or by a legislator or employee of the legislature acting in an official capacity. “Legislative action" also means the action of the governor in approving or vetoing any bill or portion thereof, and the action of the governor or any agency in the development of a proposal for introduction in the legislature.

(8m) “Legislative employee" means a member or officer of the legislature, an individual employed under s. 13.20 or an employee of a legislative service agency, as defined in s. 16.70 (6).

(8s) “Legislative proposal" means a bill, resolution or joint resolution.

(10) “Lobbying" means the practice of attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by oral or written communication with any elective state official, agency official or legislative employee, and includes time spent in preparation for such communication and appearances at public hearings or meetings or service on a committee in which such preparation or communication occurs.

(10g) “Lobbying communication" means an oral or written communication with any agency official, elective state official or legislative employee that attempts to influence legislative or administrative action, unless exempted under s. 13.621.

(10r) “Lobbying expenditure" means an expenditure related to the performance of lobbying, whether received in the form of an advance or subsequent reimbursement. The term includes an expenditure for conducting research or for providing or using information, statistics, studies or analyses in communicating with an official that would not have been incurred but for lobbying.

(11) “Lobbyist" means an individual who is employed by a principal, or contracts for or receives economic consideration, other than reimbursement for actual expenses, from a principal and whose duties include lobbying on behalf of the principal. If an individual's duties on behalf of a principal are not limited exclusively to lobbying, the individual is a lobbyist only if he or she makes lobbying communications on each of at least 5 days within a reporting period.

(11m) “Local official" means any person who holds a local office as defined in s. 5.02 (9) or has been elected to a local office but has not yet taken office, and every person who is employed by a county, city, town, village or school district who is not employed principally to influence legislative or administrative action. A person who is appointed to fill a vacant local office is a local official.

(11p) “Partisan elective state office" means the office of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, state senator or state representative to the assembly.

(11r) “Partisan elective state official" means any individual holding a partisan elective state office.

(12) “Principal" means any person who employs a lobbyist. If an association, corporation, limited liability company or partnership engages a lobbyist, an officer, employee, member, shareholder or partner of the association, corporation, limited liability company or partnership shall not be considered a principal.

(12g) “Relative" means a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, parent-in-law, grandparent-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, spouse, fiance or fiancee.

(12r) “Reporting period" means any 6-month period beginning with January 1 and ending with June 30 or beginning with July 1 and ending with December 31.

(13) “State office" has the meaning given under s. 5.02 (23).

(14) “Tribal official" means any person who holds an elective office of the government of a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state, or has been elected to such an office but has not yet taken office, and any person who is employed by a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state and who is not employed principally to influence state legislative or administrative action. A person who is appointed to fill a vacant elective office of a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state is a tribal official.

History: 1977 c. 278; 1979 c. 260 s. 94; 1979 c. 328 s. 146; 1983 a. 27, 36; 1987 a. 399; 1989 a. 338; 1991 a. 32; 1993 a. 112; 1995 a. 27; 1999 a. 9, 185; 2001 a. 16; 2005 a. 74, 335, 463; 2007 a. 1, 20, 97; 2009 a. 28; 2011 a. 7, 10; 2013 a. 20; 2015 a. 117; 2015 a. 118 ss. 133, 134, 266 (10); 2017 a. 365 s. 111.

The state and its agencies are not “principals" under sub. (12). 77 Atty. Gen. 126.