Bill Text: MS SB2757 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Campaign contributions; prohibit conversion to personal use and require itemization of certain expenditures.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2017-01-31 - Died In Committee [SB2757 Detail]

Download: Mississippi-2017-SB2757-Introduced.html

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MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2017 Regular Session

To: Elections

By: Senator(s) Blount

Senate Bill 2757

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PERSONAL USE; TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-807, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE ITEMIZATION OF CERTAIN CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

     BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

     SECTION 1.  (1)  The personal use of campaign contributions by any elected public office holder or by any candidate for public office is prohibited.

          (a)  For the purposes of this section, "personal use" is defined as any use, other than expenditures related to gaining or holding public office, for which the candidate for public office or elected public official would be required to treat the amount of the expenditure as gross income under Section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 USC Section 61, or any subsequent corresponding Internal Revenue Code of the United States, as from time to time amended.

          (b)  "Candidate" shall mean any individual described in Section 23-15-801(b), and shall include any person having been a candidate until such time that the person takes office or files a termination report as provided in this section.

          (c)  "Officeholder" shall mean any elected or appointed official from the beginning of his or her term of office until that person no longer holds office.

     (2)  The following personal use expenditures are specifically prohibited under this section:

          (a)  Any residential or household items, supplies or expenditures, including mortgage, rent or utility payments for any part of any personal residence where a homestead exemption is claimed of a candidate or officeholder or a member of the candidate's or officeholder's family;

          (b)  Mortgage, rent or utility payments for any part of any nonresidential property that is owned by a candidate or officeholder or a member of a candidate's or officeholder's family and used for campaign purposes, to the extent the payments exceed the fair market value of the property usage;

          (c)  Funeral, cremation or burial expenses, including any expenses related to deaths within a candidate's or officeholder's family;

          (d)  Clothing, other than items of de minimis value that are used in the campaign;

          (e)  Automobiles, except for automobile rental expenses and other automobile expenses related to campaign or officeholder activity;

          (f)  Tuition payments within a candidate's or officeholder's family other than those associated with training campaign staff or associated with an officeholder's duties;

          (g)  Salary payments to a member of a candidate's family, unless the family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign.  If a family member provides bona fide services to a campaign, any salary payments in excess of the fair market value of the services provided is personal use;

          (h)  Nondocumented loans of any type, including loans to candidates;

          (i)  Travel expenses except for travel expenses of a candidate, officeholder or staff member of the officeholder for travel undertaken as an ordinary and necessary expense of seeking, holding or maintaining public office, or for attending meetings or conferences of officials similar to the office held or sought, or for an issue the legislative body is or will consider, or attending a state or national convention of any party.  If a candidate or officeholder uses campaign contributions to pay expenses associated with travel that involves both personal activities and campaign or officeholder activities, the incremental expenses that result from the personal activities are personal use, unless the person(s) benefiting from this use reimburse(s) the campaign account within thirty (30) days for the amount of the incremental expenses;

          (j)  Payment of any fines, fees or penalties assessed pursuant to Mississippi law.

     (3)  Any expense that directly results from campaign or officeholder activity is a specifically permitted use of campaign contributions.  Such expenditures are not considered personal use expenditures and may include, but are not limited to, the following expenditures:

          (a)  The defrayal of ordinary and necessary expenses of a candidate or officeholder, including expenses reasonably related to performing the duties of the office held or sought to be held;

          (b)  Campaign office or officeholder office expenses and equipment, provided the expenditures and the use of the equipment can be directly attributable to the campaign or office held;

          (c)  Donations to charitable organizations, not-for-profit organizations or for sponsorships, provided the candidate or officeholder does not receive monetary compensation, other than reimbursements of expenses, from the recipient organization;

          (d)  Gifts of nominal value and donations of a nominal amount made on a special occasion such as a holiday, graduation, marriage, retirement or death, unless made to a member of the candidate's or officeholder's family;

          (e)  Meal and beverage expenses which are incurred as part of a campaign activity or as a part of a function that is related to the candidate's or officeholder's responsibilities, including meals between and among candidates and/or officeholders that are incurred as an ordinary and necessary expense of seeking, holding or maintaining public office, or seeking, holding or maintaining a position within the Legislature or other publicly elected body;

          (f)  Reasonable rental or accommodation expenses incurred by an officeholder during a legislative session or a day or days in which the officeholder is required by his or her duties to be at the Capitol or another location outside the officeholder's county of residence.  Such rental or accommodation expenses shall not exceed Fifty Dollars ($50.00) per day, if the officeholder receives per diem, or One Hundred Ninety Dollars ($190.00) per day, if the officeholder receives no per diem.  Any expenses incurred under this paragraph (g) must be reported as an expenditure pursuant to this section;

          (g)  Communication access expenses, including mobile devices and Internet access costs, which are incurred as part of a campaign activity and operation to ensure that deaf and hearing-impaired citizens are fully participating, volunteering, and/or otherwise maintaining a position with the campaign committee.  Examples of communication access expenses include, but are not limited to, the following:  captioning on television advertisements; video clips; sign language interpreters; computer-aided real-time (CART) services; and assistive listening devices;

          (h)  Legal fees and costs associated with any civil action, criminal prosecution or investigation related to conduct reasonably related to the candidacy or performing the duties of the office held.

     (4)  Upon filing the termination report required under Section 23-15-807, any campaign contributions not used to pay for the expenses of gaining or holding public office shall:

          (a)  Be maintained in a campaign account(s);

          (b)  Be donated to a political organization, or to a political action committee, or to another candidate;

          (c)  Be transferred, in whole or in part, into a newly established political action committee or ballot question advocate;

          (d)  Be donated to a tax-exempt charitable organization as that term is used in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 USC Section 501, or any subsequent corresponding Internal Revenue Code of the United States, as from time to time amended;

          (e)  Be donated to the State of Mississippi; or

          (f)  Be returned to a donor or donors.

     (5)  Any candidate for public office or any elected official who willfully violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) and by a state assessment equal to the amount of misappropriated campaign contributions.  The state assessment shall be deposited into the Public Employees' Retirement System.  No fine or assessment imposed under this section shall be paid by a third party.

     (6)  Any contributions accruing to a candidate's or officeholder's campaign account before January 1, 2018, shall be exempt and not subject to the provisions of this Section 1.  All exempt contributions must be designated as exempt on all reports filed with the Secretary of State pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

     (7)  The Secretary of State, through the Elections Division, shall issue advisory opinions regarding any of the requirements set forth in this section.  When any officeholder or candidate requests an advisory opinion, in writing, and has stated all of the facts to govern the opinion, and the Secretary of State has prepared and delivered the opinion with references to the request, there shall be no criminal liability accruing to or against any officeholder or candidate who, in good faith, follows the direction of the opinion and acts in accordance with the opinion, unless a court of competent jurisdiction, after a full hearing, judicially declares that the opinion is manifestly wrong and without any substantial support.  No opinion shall be considered or issued if the opinion would be issued after judicial proceedings have commenced.

     All advisory opinions issued pursuant to the provisions of this subsection shall be made public and shall be issued within fourteen (14) days of the written request, or within fourteen (14) days of receipt by the Secretary of State of the written request, whichever is later.  The identity of the individual making a request for an advisory opinion shall be confidential.  The Secretary of State shall, so far as is practicable and before making the opinion public, make deletions and changes to any advisory opinion issued under the provisions of this subsection that may be necessary to ensure the anonymity of the public official and any other person named in the opinion.

     SECTION 2.  Section 23-15-807, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     23-15-807.  (a)  Each candidate or political committee shall file reports of contributions and disbursements in accordance with the provisions of this section.  All candidates or political committees required to report may terminate its obligation to report only upon submitting a final report that it will no longer receive any contributions or make any disbursement and that such candidate or committee has no outstanding debts or obligations. The candidate, treasurer or chief executive officer shall sign each such report.

     (b)  Candidates who are seeking election, or nomination for election, and political committees that make expenditures for the purpose of influencing or attempting to influence the action of voters for or against the nomination for election, or election, of one or more candidates or balloted measures at such election, shall file the following reports:

          (i)  In any calendar year during which there is a regularly scheduled election, a preelection report, which shall be filed no later than the seventh day before any election in which such candidate or political committee has accepted contributions or made expenditures and which shall be complete as of the tenth day before such election;

          (ii)  In 1987 and every fourth year thereafter, periodic reports, which shall be filed no later than the tenth day after April 30, May 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31, and which shall be complete as of the last day of each period; and

          (iii)  In any calendar years except 1987 and except every fourth year thereafter, a report covering the calendar year which shall be filed no later than January 31 of the following calendar year.

     (c)  All candidates for judicial office as defined in Section 23-15-975, or their political committees, shall file in the year in which they are to be elected, periodic reports which shall be filed no later than the tenth day after April 30, May 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31.

     (d)  Contents of reports.  Each report under this article shall disclose:

          (i)  For the reporting period and the calendar year, the total amount of all contributions and the total amount of all expenditures of the candidate or reporting committee which shall include those required to be identified pursuant to * * *item paragraph (ii) of this * * *paragraph subsection as well as the total of all other contributions and expenditures during the calendar year.  Such reports shall be cumulative during the calendar year to which they relate;

          (ii)  The identification of:

              1.  Each person or political committee who makes a contribution to the reporting candidate or political committee during the reporting period, whose contribution or contributions within the calendar year have an aggregate amount or value in excess of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) together with the date and amount of any such contribution;

              2.  Each person or organization, candidate or political committee who receives an expenditure, payment or other transfer from the reporting candidate, political committee or its agent, employee, designee, contractor, consultant or other person or persons acting in its behalf during the reporting period when the expenditure, payment or other transfer to such person, organization, candidate or political committee within the calendar year have an aggregate value or amount in excess of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) together with the date and amount of such expenditure * * *.; and

              3.  The following detailed billing information for any expenditure to a credit card company, other business providing credit card purchase services, Internet payment company or similar entity providing credit or payment services for purchases of goods and services:  identification of each vendor paid by the credit card company or similar entity, date of the purchase or payment, and amount of the purchase or payment.  Merely identifying aggregate payments to a credit card company or similar entity does not satisfy the requirements of this section.

          (iii)  The total amount of cash on hand of each reporting candidate and reporting political committee;

          (iv)  In addition to the contents of reports specified in * * *items paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) of this * * *paragraph subsection, each political party shall disclose:

              1.  Each person or political committee who makes a contribution to a political party during the reporting period and whose contribution or contributions to a political party within the calendar year have an aggregate amount or value in excess of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), together with the date and amount of the contribution;

              2.  Each person or organization who receives an expenditure by a political party or expenditures by a political party during the reporting period when the expenditure or expenditures to the person or organization within the calendar year have an aggregate value or amount in excess of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), together with the date and amount of the expenditure.

     (e)  The appropriate office specified in Section 23-15-805 must be in actual receipt of the reports specified in this article by 5:00 p.m. on the dates specified in * * *paragraph subsection (b) of this section.  If the date specified in * * *paragraph subsection (b) of this section shall fall on a weekend or legal holiday then the report shall be due in the appropriate office at 5:00 p.m. on the first working day before the date specified in * * *paragraph subsection (b) of this section.  The reporting candidate or reporting political committee shall ensure that the reports are delivered to the appropriate office by the filing deadline.  The Secretary of State may approve specific means of electronic transmission of completed campaign finance disclosure reports, which may include, but not be limited to, transmission by electronic facsimile (FAX) devices.

     (f)  (i)  If any contribution of more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) is received by a candidate or candidate's political committee after the tenth day, but more than forty-eight (48) hours before 12:01 a.m. of the day of the election, the candidate or political committee shall notify the appropriate office designated in Section 23-15-805, within forty-eight (48) hours of receipt of the contribution.  The notification shall include:

              1.  The name of the receiving candidate;

              2.  The name of the receiving candidate's political committee, if any;

              3.  The office sought by the candidate;

              4.  The identification of the contributor;

              5.  The date of receipt;

              6.  The amount of the contribution;

              7.  If the contribution is in kind, a description of the in-kind contribution; and

              8.  The signature of the candidate or the treasurer or director of the candidate's political committee.

          (ii)  The notification shall be in writing, and may be transmitted by overnight mail, courier service, or other reliable means, including electronic facsimile (FAX), but the candidate or candidate's committee shall ensure that the notification shall in fact be received in the appropriate office designated in Section 23-15-805 within forty-eight (48) hours of the contribution.

     SECTION 3.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2017.

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