The price of Statehouse lobbying influence is high.

It rose to $10.2 million in this year’s session.

With the future of SCANA on the line, you might think prospective buyer Dominion Energy of Virginia might be the biggest spender on Statehouse lobbying.

According to SC Ethics Commission lobbying reports, they are in the Top 10 but they aren’t the biggest.

But guess who spent the most money, according to required lobbying reports?

Believe it or not, it was the hospitals. The SC Hospital Association spent $170,533 and Palmetto Health another $85,993.

What can they expect to gain from that?

Laws favoring their concerns and help delaying or killing bills that don’t.

Major corporations and associations representing local governments, manufacturers and small businesses see billions of dollars riding on what lawmakers do – or are convinced not to do.

In its quest to buy Lexington County-based SCANA, a major locally-owned power holding company, Dominion spent $118,104 on its lobbying effort.

It may have spent more than that in its media advertising to try to convince ratepayers that the buyout would be good for them.

SCANA executives spent another $111,876 in lobbying, much of it in support of the Dominion deal.

The state’s other 2 major utilities spent big, too.

The Electric Cooperatives, an association representing Mid-Carolina Electric and other cooperatives spent $135,986.

Duke Energy Carolinas, a NC company that serves the upstate, spent $118,665.

Other big spenders:

• AT&T $139,148

• The Municipal Association representing local governments spent $135,980

• Altria Client Services spent $91,997

• The S.C. Manufacturers Alliance spent $90,250

Due to tougher ethics laws passed after the FBI’s Operation Lost Trust sting in the 1990s sent lawmakers to prison, lobbyists are limited in what they can do.

The late Ryan Shealy of Lexington once said, “I can’t even let you buy me coffee.”

He paid for lunch with a Chronicle reporter.

Of course, the reporter graciously let him do it.