HAMMOND | The Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau has agreed on a one-year contract with an Indianapolis law firm for lobbying the state Legislature.

The contract with Ice Miller LLP will cost the bureau $60,000 in legal fees, plus related expenses. The pact means the bureau will use one lobbyist during 2008, instead of the two it used this year.

Bureau President Speros Batistatos said the decision to use only Ice Miller, one of its current lobbyists, was based on its hiring a firm with connections to Democrats in the Legislature to supplement its use of a partner who is acquainted with Republican lawmakers.

"I believe we have the best one-two punch in Indianapolis," Batistatos said.

According to a letter from Ice Miller to the bureau, the law firm has 12 responsibilities under the contract, among them providing contact with legislators on issues affecting the bureau, monitoring committee hearings affecting the bureau's interests and tracking legislation introduced in the General Assembly that pertains to the bureau.

The letter says that attorneys Bob Kuzman and Mark Shublak primarily will be responsible for working with the bureau. Shublak is a Republican. Kuzman, a Democrat and until recently a state representative from Crown Point for more than a decade, was hired by Ice Miller and is the son of bureau attorney, Daniel Kuzman.

Batistatos has said many times that lobbyists are needed because the state legislature has considered several measures he regards as harmful to the hospitality industry. This year, the legislature considered n but did not pass n one measure that would have cut state funding of the bureau by $175,000 annually and another that would have let municipalities tax hotels and restaurants.

Three months ago, the bureau budgeted $125,000 for lobbyists in its 2008 budget -- a $50,000 increase over what was earmarked in 2007. By hiring one lobbyist for $60,000 in fixed legal fees, the bureau is under budget, but the deal also permits Ice Miller to charge for "various ancillary services, costs and expenses," according to the letter from the law firm.

The charges include long-distance phone calls, copying, entertainment, faxes, computer research, mileage and travel expenses "applicable to the services provided to the Lake County CVB," the letter states.