Bill Text: HI HB257 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Campaign Finance
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2012-04-13 - (H) Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 747). [HB257 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-HB257-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1123
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 257
H.D. 2
S.D. 1
Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui
President of the Senate
Twenty-Sixth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2011
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 257, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN SPENDING,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the campaign finance laws by, among other things:
(1) Regulating automated phone calls by including them within the definition and regulation of advertisements;
(2) Changing report filing deadlines;
(3) Requiring that a supplemental report be filed by candidate committees in non-election years;
(4) Adding specified fines for the late filing or failure to file organizational reports, an electioneering communications statement, a notice of intent to hold a fundraiser, and an expenditure of public funds report when required by law;
(5) Adding a cap of an unspecified amount on the price of fundraiser tickets that may be purchased with campaign funds;
(6) Applying notice and disclaimer requirements to an advertisement that is not paid for by an independent party; and
(7) Repealing the tax deduction for qualifying contributions to a candidate who files an affidavit regarding public funds.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission. Your Committee received comments on this measure from Common Cause Hawaii.
Your Committee finds that the campaign finance laws, codified at chapter 11, part XIII, Hawaii Revised Statutes, were passed by the Legislature in 2010. This measure clarifies and makes substantive changes to some of these laws. Your Committee believes that these amendments are reasonable and necessary to improve transparency and accountability in the election and campaign financing systems.
Among other things, this measure adds a supplemental reporting requirement for candidate committees in non-election years. Your Committee believes that the current method of reporting for candidate committees is sufficient to adequately inform the public of candidate committee activities. Your Committee also notes that another measure that was referred to and heard by your Committee, H.B. No. 258, H.D. 1, adds an additional preliminary report filing deadline on September 30 of each election year in order to align the filing deadlines for candidate committee reports with the earlier primary election date established during the 2010 legislative session to conform with federal law. Your Committee believes that the inclusion of a September 30 preliminary reporting requirements is a logical amendment to this measure.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Adding the supplementary September 30 preliminary report filing requirement from H.B. No. 258, H.D. 1;
(2) Deleting the non-election year supplemental candidate committee reporting requirement; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 257, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 257, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,
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____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair |
