Debating campaign finance reporting and sunshine in ‘tiny, tiny places’…

“I am here this morning to offer you a little bit of sunshine, and I think we need it,” declared Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, as she presented SB 1299 – the emergency bill to require campaign finance reporting for all races and ballot measures, at all levels – to the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning. “And by sunshine I mean reporting of campaign expenditures and donations equally on all sides of elections at both our state and local levels,” she said. “Our citizens deserve to know that sources of support and influence for candidates and ballot measures that are asking for their vote.”

Souza said even very small districts or government entities, like library, fire or cemetery districts, can deal with big annual budgets. “These are people that don’t have to report the influences of finances on their candidacy or their election situation, and yet they’re making large decisions over significant amounts of taxpayer money, and they’re setting policy, public policy that is important and impacts everyone in their area,” she said. “That’s why we need to know.”

The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, expands a 2015 law that Souza also sponsored extending campaign finance reporting requirements to school districts, removing that measure’s exception for districts with fewer than 500 students.

“Currently all state-level candidates and ballot measures must report campaign funds, but at the local level it’s inconsistent,” Souza said, “leaving voters in the dark about financial influences in many important races,” including levies and bonds.

Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, said, “There are so many tiny, tiny places in Idaho that sometimes hire a clerk to do their basic stuff … and have a very difficult time even getting candidates to show up.” She said for those tiny entities, “That does seem like a burden, and really so little happens but just enough that they might have to report.” She asked if Souza had considered a minimum amount below which reporting wouldn’t be required.

Souza said there’s no such provision in her bill. Even candidates or ballot measures with no campaign funds would have to report, saying they’d raised nothing. The first-term senator said requiring reporting over a threshold amount, such as after a candidate has raised $500, is problematic because “we don’t know what we don’t know.” If someone has raised more or less than that threshold and doesn’t report, she said, “There’s no way to prove that. … So you’re going just totally off of good faith.”

Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, noted that existing law sets thresholds for reporting by political committees and political party committees; they don’t have to report if they raise or spend $500 or less in a year for political committees, and $5,000 or less for political party committees. He asked Souza why her bill doesn’t change that, too, “if the goal … is full sunshine.”

Souza said she didn’t address that in her bill. “I thought it might be overstepping a bit to try to change existing definitions that are in current election laws,” she said. Lakey, Souza’s co-sponsor, said he liked Davis’ idea.

Souza said the hope is that eventually, candidates and ballot measure groups at all levels of government will be able to file their reports through a single portal provided by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office, which would also provide public access to the reports; however, that technology isn’t yet in place. Violations would be misdemeanors punishable by fines and jail terms.

Current law requires campaign finance reporting for mayor and city council races in cities with populations of 5,000 or more.

Davis asked Souza the purpose of the emergency clause, which would make the measure effective immediately when it’s signed into law, rather than waiting for a July 1 effective date like most bills. Souza said, “The emergency clause is in place because we are coming up on a major presidential election year and this would be a great time just to get this all in place. And as we all know, there are many, many races and elections going on throughout the state that are of concern to the public. So this would alleviate the trust issues that are going on in our public when they … can’t see who is giving money to what.” She said, “Everyone from all sections of the political spectrum want to know who’s influencing the elections.”