FRANKFORT — Newcomers and veteran lobbying interests combined to spend nearly $2.9 million to influence the 2001 General Assembly.

        According to reports filed with the Legislative Ethics Commission, more than 500 companies and organizations spent money on lobbying the first regular annual session since 1851.

        The total compares with about $7 million spent to lobby the legislature last year. But the 2000 session was a 60-day session and involved a state budget bill and a major tax-reform bill.

        The largest single spender on lobbying was BellSouth Telecommunications at $59,034. The second highest total was reported by the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys — $54,524.

        Most of the other top spenders were large associations that monitor actions of the legislature and always rank among the biggest spending interests, including groups that represent state doctors, industries, retail businesses, bankers, hospitals and teachers.

        But newcomers interested in single issues ranked high on the list this year.

        McCormick Contractors, a Winchester construction-management company headed by James Codell IV, the son of state Transportation Secretary James Codell III, spent $30,000 for the services of three lobbyists who helped win passage of a bill preventing firms that serve as architects for certain public construction projects from also serving as construction manager for the projects.

        BellSouth lobbied the legislature for telecommunications tax reform and also had “a minor interest” in a failed telemarketing bill that was intended to restrict telephone sales calls, said Ron Geohegan, a public affairs executive for BellSouth.

        A measure to reform telecommunications taxes by replacing myriad state and local taxes with a single excise tax failed in 2000. The measure, which BellSouth supports, was filed again this year but was not seriously considered.

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