$1.9 million spent on lobbyists for Cook County

Advocate Healthcare, the largest health care provider in the Chicago metropolitan area, spent $125,000 lobbying county government in 2011, the largest single sum among the $1.9 million spent on lobbyists last year, Cook County Clerk David Orr said in a report released Tuesday. “Lobbyists contacted officials nearly 1,200 times in 2011,” Orr said in a prepared release pointing people to a searchable database on who is spending how much to lobby for what. The 199 registered lobbyists in Cook County earned 8 percent less than in 2010, according to the report. The budget and various taxes — property, sales, tobacco and alcohol — were lobbied on more than any other issues. The Lobbyist Online report is at www.cookcountyclerk.com/ethics/lobbyistonline/Pages/default.aspx. Lobbyists paid nearly $75,000 to register. The number of companies who hired a lobbyist or had one on staff grew from 125 to 147. Some firms, including nonprofits, lobby on their own behalf and therefore do not report any compensation.