State Will Go To Court To Open Lobby Group’s Books

The state is going to court in an attempt to pry open financial records of the building industry’s lobbying arm as regulators pursue allegations it violated campaign disclosure laws.

The Building Industry Association of Washington has refused to open some of its financial records to Public Disclosure Commission investigators, saying the records are proprietary and the commission doesn’t need them anyway.

The commission has filed a petition with Thurston County Superior Court seeking an order that the BIAW open the books of its Member Services Corporation. The hearing is scheduled for next week.

The court fight stems from PDC investigators’ attempt to look at records of the corporation, an internal entity that operates various programs for association members, from workers’ compensation to health insurance.

The corporation also gives tens of thousands of dollars to political candidates who side with their fight to loosen building regulations and the state Growth Management Act, among other things.

The Washington State Labor Council, in a July 15 complaint to the commission, contended the Member Services Corporation, or MSC, is primarily a political action committee by virtue of its political activity.

As such, the council argued, the building association was required by law to register the MSC as a political action committee and disclose the campaign finance activity.

The disclosure commission contends in court papers that it needs access to MSC financial records to determine whether the labor council complaint has merit.

Tom McCabe, the head of the building industry association, said Monday “it should be readily apparent” to the investigators that the MSC is primarily a corporation formed to run profit-making programs for the nonprofit association.

Like any corporation, it has the right to contribute to campaigns without registering as a PAC, he said.