Senate panel kills Souza’s ‘sunshine’ bill

The Senate State Affairs Committee has killed Sen. Mary Souza’s bill to require campaign finance reporting for all candidates and ballot measures, at all levels of government, whether or not any money is raised or spent; the bill was defeated on a lopsided voice vote.

“I’m so pleased that Sen. Souza is championing this, she has long been a champion of accountability and disclosure,” said Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. “However the underlying law is very complex.” He and other committee members pointed to an array of concerns, from conflicts with other sections of existing law to the bill’s emergency clause.

Souza said she’d be willing to consider amendments to the bill to remove the threshold for PACs to have to report, and make several other small changes. Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, moved to send the bill to the Senate’s 14 ^th Order for amendments, and Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, seconded the motion. Winder said, “We rewrite very complicated laws” in the Senate’s amending order. “I just think this is a very important piece of legislation that needs to be advanced,” he said. “We all talk about transparency. We all talk about wanting people to have the knowledge of who’s paying for campaigns. … I’ve been accused in recent weeks of bringing in ‘dark money.’ It would be nice to be able to find out and to be able to verify that there wasn’t any money brought into it, because the requirement for reporting would have been there.”

Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, who said he came to the meeting this morning intending to support the bill, said, “I just don’t think this is a bill you can rewrite in the amending order, without its impact not having further public consideration.” He objected to removing the small-school district exemption that lawmakers just passed last year. “It’s my understanding that that was done by agreement, and we need to keep the agreement, in my opinion, and allow the school district  trustees to have an opportunity to see how it applies.” Davis called it “premature” to change that.

“There is no doubt that change is difficult,” Souza said, “but what we have to ask ourselves is, is it worth it for the value,” which she said is “trust and belief in our system of elections.” Urging the senators to support her bill, Souza said, “All this would do is add one page that they would have to fill out at the very beginning to designate their campaign treasurer, and then that half-page form” saying they’ve raised and spent no money. “It is not complicated and these are people that have to file their income taxes every year just like all the rest of us.”

She said, “We don’t know if there are problems, because there hasn’t been any reporting. … Will it cause some level of inconvenience? Yes it will. But is it worth it to increase voter confidence and participation in our election system? I believe it is.”

Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, praised Souza’s work on the bill, but said it’s “pretty egregious to prosecute them as a misdemeanor or jail or fine them. … I think that is a pretty heavy lift for some of the smallest, tiniest entities we’re trying to cover here.” She and other committee members thanked Souza for bringing the proposal, but said they believe more work and discussion is needed.