"Special interest groups with business before the state government spent $538 million on professional lobbyists to influence the passage or defeat of bills during the 2009-10 legislative session.
Though slightly less than the $550 million spent on lobbying in 2007-08, the total was 39% higher than the amount reported for the first two years of the decade.
“Democracy is getting increasingly expensive in California,” said Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of California. He likened spending on lobbying to the Cold War arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union."
$500 million spent on lobbying the Legislature last year
Los Angeles Times:
