The House Ethics Committee voted 5-3 against HB 0164, a bill imposing campaign contributions limits. Representative Rebecca Chaves-Houch had formerly introduced the legislation only four days earlier.

Utah presently has no limits to the amounts one can contribute to candidates for state offices. The bill caps contributions to $5,000 for legislative candidates, $10,000 for gubernatorial candidates, and $10,000 to state PACs.

Representative Chaves-Houch intends on reintroducing some version of the bill, possibly next year.

This post follows up a previous article by George Ticoras called “Putting Limits on Utah Contributions” from February 8, 2011.

Photo by Scott Catron on Wikipedia.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has asked the city council to end ‘wheeling’ in the city’s elections. Wheeling is a term used to describe the channeling of money through different political committees to avoid contribution limits.

The mayor also wants an ordinance to limit the amount of contributions an outside PAC may donate to a candidate in a city election and stressed how the former mayor Cammarano’s campaign received more than $100,000 in the last 11 days of his campaign from political committees not from Hoboken.

City councilman Ravinder Bhalla is a sponsor of the proposed legislation.

As reported in today’s pressofatlanticcity.com, the Atlantic City City Council unanimously passed a pay-to-play ordinance mandated by an agreement with the state’s Department of Community Affairs. The law would prohibit granting contracts to individuals and businesses who contributed to a campaign or political action committee for the election of a council member.

The Department of Community Affairs gives financial assistance to local municipalities in exchange for measures such as instituting pay-to-play laws and giving the Department power to review and approve other city business, such as hiring and promoting. The only discussion about the ordinance was from Councilman Moisse Delgado, who asked, “Y’all ready for this?”

Representative Rebecca Chaves-Houch introduced House Bill 0164 limiting political contributions to statewide candidates for office. Presently, there are no limits to the amounts one can contribute to candidates for state offices in Utah.

The bill’s provisions include caps on donations by individual contributors to $5,000 for legislative candidates, $10,000 for gubernatorial candidates, and $10,000 to state PACs.

The bill does not address corporate contributions to candidates, which Utah permits. If passed, the limits would take effect on January 1, 2013.

Photo of the Utah State Capitol Building by Sean Breazeal (Talshiarr) on Wikipedia.

The Federal Election Commission has published the 2011-2012 election cycle contribution limits adjusted for inflation. The revised limits, indexed according to the consumer price index, include raising the amount an individual and certain PACs can contribute to a candidate from $2,400 to $2,500 and to a national party committee from $30,400 to $30,800.

The previous biennial limit of $115,500 has been adjusted upward to $117,000, of which $46,200 may be contributed to candidates and $70,800 total to federal PACs and all other political party committees.

Senator James Arnold has introduced a bill which would require persons seeking business relationships with local jurisdictions and their agencies to register and report activity and expenditures as lobbyists, whether or not the local jurisdictions have ordinances dealing with lobbying. Senate Bill 0330 defines ‘business relationship’ to include pecuniary interest contracts and purchases with an agency with an aggregate value of at least $100,000.

The bill calls for the reporting to be filed with the local county clerks where the lobbying activity occurs. A $100 a day late fine would be imposed for each day a lobbyist misses his or her filing date and lobbyists knowingly failing to register or file would face a Class A infraction.

The bill also allows local jurisdictions to adopt ethics ordinances and establish ethics commissions.

Map of Indiana by Jim Irwin on Wikipedia.

Delegate Anthony J. O’Donnell introduced a bill creating a cooling off period for executive branch officials who wish to lobby upon leaving office. House Bill 0027 would prohibit former state and public officials of the executive branch from lobbying, or assisting in lobbying, for compensation in matters of legislative action for a period of one year after leaving employment.

The bill provides an exception permitting the former officials to lobby for a municipal corporation, county, or state governmental entity.

Photo of the Maryland Statehouse in Annapolis by Thisisbossi on Wikipedia.

Representative Joseph M. McNamara introduced HB 5127 to amend the state’s “Code of Ethics” law. The bill would create a cooling off period for executive branch government officials who wish to lobby for specific entities once they leave office.

The law would require those employed by the department of administration in a decision-making position or capacity or those with influence over legislation with the executive branch to not lobby for or even work for a state agency, quasi-public agency, or any other state subsidized corporation or entity should they leave their employment until a new governor is elected.

Representative Keith Grover has prepared HB 32 for introduction, which would amend the current statutory campaign contribution and financial reporting requirements. The bill requires new disclosure reports to be filed, including both annual and interim reports, from county political parties spending at least $50 or receiving at least $750.

Included in the reports would be specific donor and expenditure detail. The bill also includes penalties, fines, and scheduling dates for filing.

The Seal of Utah by Svgalbertian on Wikipedia.

The American Bar Association’s Task Force on Federal Lobbying Laws has issued a report recommending several changes to existing federal lobbying laws. The Task Force proposes broadening registration requirements for lobbyist by eliminating the current twenty percent rule, the threshold amount of time devoted to lobbying required before triggering registration.

The Task Force also recommends disclosing outside lobbying support by other firms and individuals, including details of compensation, specific identities of those involved, and short narrative summaries of the work performed. Lobbying support would be defined to include monitoring legislative and administrative developments related to lobbying goals, strategic advice, polling, and other activities. Additionally, in some situations, the lobbying support entity would be required to file disclosures.

The report includes other recommendations including strengthening the regulation of lobbyist participation in political fundraising.

The report by the Task Force on Federal Lobbying Laws has not been approved by the Council of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, the House of Delegates, or the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association.

Photo of the American Bar Association building in Washington, D.C. by AgnosticPreachersKid at enwikipedia.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker is proposing the General Assembly pass an ethics law prohibiting local council members from reviewing land use cases where there has been no appeal. Currently, when a planning board has decided an outcome, and there is no appeal by either the developer or the resident, the council can still choose to ‘call’ up the case. Baker wants to prevent this procedure because the purpose may be to seek concessions from developers.

Baker is also proposing they pass legislation similar to what has already been proposed by Delegate Justin Ross, requiring local officials to recuse themselves from voting on building projects if a developer contributed to a shared campaign account affiliated with the official. Presently, local leaders may vote on land use projects while indirectly receiving political contribution from these developers through accounts shared with General Assembly candidates.

An Advisory Committee on Campaign Finance created by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has issued a report recommending changes to the state’s campaign finance laws. Among the 25 recommendations are treating LLC clusters and all other legal entities with common ownership or control as single entities for contribution limit purposes, requiring disclosure from any non-political party group making independent expenditures for the election or defeat of a candidate, and requiring loan-related violations of campaign contribution limits to be assessed against candidates as well as lenders.

The committee suggested further study for issues regarding how campaign finance laws apply to “new media,” including requiring the reporting of sub-vendor information, to prevent covert campaigning by candidates and their committees through anonymous sources.

Ronald DeFilippis, Chairman of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, revealed the upcoming plans for the commission, including the intention to have electronic filing available for quarterly and annual lobbyist reports by 2012. Writing in the latest ELEC-Tronic Newsletter, the monthly informational bulletin from the commission, the chairman noted the “staff is working to create the hardware and software components” to implement the new filing system.

The commission also intends to enhance its candidate and treasurer training, introducing instructional videos and making training available online, and to simplify the language in their lobbying and campaign finance law compliance manuals.

Governor Brian Sandoval signed Executive Order 2011-02 establishing a new ethics gift rule for the governor’s senior staff, cabinet, all division heads of cabinet agencies, and himself as governor.

The order prohibits gifts which might be intended to influence or reward an individual in the performance of his or her official business. The order also requires notification of the ethics requirements to vendors doing business with the state and those receiving state grants.

Photo of Governor Sandoval courtesy of Brian Sandoval on Wikipedia.