Maryland lobbyist repeats as top earner over past year

For the second year in a row and the third time in four years, Timothy Perry, a partner at the Annapolis firm Perry, White, Ross and Jacobson who was previously a chief of staff for the late Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., was the top earner among Maryland’s roughly 650 lobbyists, according to recent ethics reports.

The Maryland State Ethics Commission releases lobbying compensation and spending reports twice per year.

The latest reports came out this week, though the commission is expected to calculate and post annual totals in the next week or so. The updated numbers may include delinquent reports and amended totals from the first six-month reporting period of the year, commission Executive Director Jennifer Allgair wrote in an email Wednesday.

Simply adding compensation totals for the two most recent ethics reports, which cover November 2022 through April of this year and May through October, shows that Perry brought in nearly $3.9 million.

Perry was also the top-earning lobbyist in the state last year, raking in nearly $3.5 million.

The second-highest-earning lobbyist was Gerard Evans, founder and president of Evans and Associates in Annapolis, who made $2.6 million.

Following Evans was Lisa Harris Jones, a founding and managing member of Harris Jones & Malone, with offices in Baltimore and Annapolis. She brought in $2.3 million.

Michael Johansen, a partner at Rifkin Weiner Livingston LLC, which has offices in Annapolis, Baltimore and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, also made more than $2 million.

Bruce Bereano, principal for the Office of Bruce C. Bereano in Annapolis, who made $1.9 million between November 2022 and April of this year, didn’t appear to have yet filed a compensation report.

Perry, unlike most other top earners, made about the same amount in the first six months of the lobbying year as he did in the last six months.

He brought in nearly $1.9 million between November 2022 and April of this year, and nearly $2 million between May and October.

The only other lobbyist who earned more than $1 million between May and October was Gregory “Steve” Proctor Jr., president and CEO of G.S. Proctor & Associates, based in Upper Marlboro. Proctor made just shy of $2 million in total during the last lobbying year.

The next closest to $1 million during the interim months was Jonas Jacobson, who works with Perry at their namesake firm. Jacobson made $800,000 between May and October.

Others, like Evans, Harris Jones and Johansen, brought in the bulk of their earnings in the first part of the year.

Perry, Proctor and Jacobson appeared to capitalize during the interim months last year, too.

As the three top earners for the second half of 2022, Perry made 50% of his compensation between May and October, while Proctor brought in 51% and Jacobson made 52%.

Evans, who, like in 2023, was the top earner for the first six months of the 2022 lobbying year, made just 2% of his compensation between May and October 2022.

There is generally much more money spent on lobbying in the first part of the year, which isn’t surprising considering that the state’s 90-day lawmaking session runs from January to April.

Businesses, organizations, schools and others spent 42% less money on state lobbying between May and October ($28.5 million) than they did between November 2022 and April of this year ($48.8 million), according to the latest ethics reports.

The numbers resemble last year’s second-half decline. Spending on lobbying declined 44% — from $45.8 million to $25.7 million — between the first half of the 2022 lobbying year and the second half.