Bill Text: HI HB785 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Ethics; Financial Disclosures
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [HB785 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2010-HB785-Introduced.html
Report Title:
Ethics; Financial Disclosures
Description:
Requires legislators to disclose, no later than the first crossover in each legislative session, any financial interests not previously disclosed.
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
785 |
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TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to legislative ethics.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that public financial disclosure by government officials is an important tool that allows citizens to keep watch over their government. Public disclosure helps to bolster trust in government processes and allows citizens the opportunity to hold officials accountable in situations of a possible conflict of interest.
Legislators are now required to file financial disclosure reports anytime between January 1 and May 31 for the previous year, either before or after the regular legislative session. The annual filing of financial disclosures is to ensure that disclosures are made in a reasonably timely manner. However, current filing requirements allow seventeen months to lapse before a filing is required. During this period of time, a legislator could acquire a significant new financial interest, but would not be required to publicly disclose this information until after the legislature adjourns its regular session.
The purpose of this Act is to improve upon the current filing requirements for financial disclosures and require legislators to publicly disclose any new financial interests near the start of the each legislative session.
SECTION 2. Section 84-17, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
"(b) The disclosure of financial interest required by this section shall be filed:
(1) Between January 1 and May 31 of each year;
(2) Within thirty days of one's election or appointment to a state position enumerated in subsection (c); or
(3) Within thirty days of separation from a state position if a prior financial disclosure statement for the position was not filed within the one hundred eighty days preceding the date of separation;
provided that candidates for state elective offices
or the constitutional convention shall file the required statements no later
than twenty days prior to the date of the primary election for state offices or
the election of delegates to the constitutional convention[.]; and
provided further that, not later than the first crossover in each legislative
session, a legislator shall publicly disclose, upon a form provided by the
state ethics commission, any financial interest not previously disclosed."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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