Former Contractor Paid Just $3K in Lobby Registry Fines; OAG Paid $1.5K
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
A conservative policy activist and consultant previously contracting for the Indiana Office of the Attorney General paid just $3,000 of a maximum $45,000 in lobby registry fines.
In August, Erin Tuttle was nearly a year into a two-year, $200,000-maximum contract, when the Capital Chronicle asked the OAG why she was not listed in Indiana Lobby Registration Commission records; the OAG said she had mistakenly registered as a lobbyist for the city of Indianapolis. In that time, she missed 10 required filings, each with a maximum late fine of $4,500.
The OAG made the former anti-Common Core leader a full-time — and therefore registry-exempt — state employee in response.
Asked about the fines, OAG Chief Administrative Officer Larry Hopkins said in a statement, “Erin has changed her status from a contract employee to that of a paid staff employee and continues to be a valued and productive member of our legislative team.”
First-time violation discount
Indiana law requires lobbyists to file registration statements (within 15 days of becoming a lobbyist, plus annually), as well as semi-annual activity reports. Late fees rack up fast: $100 a day, up to $4,500 for 45 days.
Tuttle herself had four late filings and was facing maximum fines of $18,000, while her LLC, Tuttle Consulting, had six late filings with maximum fines of $27,000, totaling $45,000.
But the commission has long had a policy allowing it to lower fines based on filing history, according to Executive Director and General Counsel Edward Ferguson.
Tuttle and her LLC were fined $3,000 in total — $300 per late filing — because it was the first offense, Ferguson wrote in an email to the Capital Chronicle. She paid nearly 7% of the maximum, which is the default in the commission’s filings portal.
The OAG, meanwhile, has filed late once before. It had three late filings related to Tuttle, worth $13,500, but was assessed a fine of $1,500 — $500 per late filing. That’s about 11% of the maximum.
“The late filings have all been made, the late fees assessed have been paid in full, and the matter is now closed,” Ferguson wrote.
Tuttle now earns $100,000 a year as a full-time employee for the OAG, according to the Indiana Transparency Portal’s state employee database. She previously earned about $94,000 across 14 invoices under her contract, according to the portal’s vendor dashboard.
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