NCPE at NV Legislature AB 335 - dealing with campaign disclosure
May 9. 2007
To: Chairwoman Senator Barbara Cegavske and Members, Senate Legislative Operations and Election Committee
Subject: Support for amended AB 335
My name is Craig Walton, President of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics. The amended AB 335 is the fruit of the Assembly Committee’s hard work, contributions from public testimony, and strong highlights from Dr. Joe Hardy’s AB 312, and worked together in a very useful bill.
[1] Most important are sections 11 and 13, requiring that counties and cities set up ways to register lobbyists who seek to influence the votes or rulings of elected and high-level appointed public officials. Currently these lobbyists are not covered by any registration or regulation.
[2] Equally important is Dr. Joe Hardy’s “gift”, in Sections 10 and 18, where an exception is made for attending events related to one’s public office or an event sponsored by an IRS 501 [c] organization. At present, -- and as shown at 2 of our Town Hall meetings – many legislators who know little or nothing about, say, mining, no longer take part in a conference designed to inform legislators about Nevada’s mining industry, because such participation would be counted as a gift and raise negative publicity flurries. But there is something professionally valuable to a legislator about being able to attend workshops, seminars and conferences to learn about issues and industries on which he or she must make public policy. Currently you are allowed 2 such meetings, one of which is a national meeting for legislators. Your professional development as Nevada lawmakers calls for greater outreach, where possible. Dr. Hardy therefore urged in his AB 312 the wording we see here, so that AB 335 borrowed several strong points from his bill, to put the 2 together.
[3] Another issue we have urged upon the Senate and Assembly committees is the need to use the internet to give to Nevadans campaign, lobbying and financial disclosure information. Here, in Sec. 3, subsection 5, and Section 5, subsection 2, the Secretary of State’s internet website is now the place to share these documents. Secs. 26 & 27 also provide that city and county filing officers will share with the SOS those filed disclosure statements required, so they too can then be made available to the public on the SOS internet website.
[4] Finally, at Sections 6, 7 and 8, AB 335 will replace the filing of 281.559 and 281.561 campaign disclosure statements with the NCOE, with, instead, one standardized electronic form designed by the SOS, obtainable from the SOS website, and transmittable back to the SOS for filing and website posting. This will simplify the disclosure process, centralize it, and speed up the entire process.
Thank you for your consideration.
From: Craig Walton, President, and Members, Nevada Center for Public Ethics
Go to other 2007 testimonies
AB 80, to require Limited Liability Corporations (LLC’s) to report contributions. As to the relationship to NCPE's 11 proposals, AB 80, is close to NCPE's proposal on p. 1 of our doc.
AB 109, - allows leftover campaign monies to go to a public-purpose Trust Fund.
AB 143, - changes the NV. Commission on Ethics deadline for completing an inquiry from 45 days to 1 year, and also allows the complainee to be told what is happening to his or her complaint.
SJR 1 - removes the requirement that affidavits be provided with ballot initiative petitions.
SB 79 - brings our statutes into line with a court ruling that the affidavit requirement for ballot petitions is a violation of the First Amendment.
SB 144, to require Limited Liability Corporations (LLC's) to report contributions.
AB 142 - to require ethics instruction and lobbyists to the Executive Dept. to register and report expenditures.
AB 605 requires ethics training for new public officers and also for lobbyists, forbids the use of one’s office staff or equipment for campaign purposes, and doubles the three levels of penalties for violating ethics laws.
SB 495 provides a one-year cooling offperiod for persons leaving the Public Utilities Commission, the Gaming Control Board, or “former public officers or employees”. Original Testimony Revised Comments
SB 494 - dealing with primary, general, and municipal elections, SB 494 changes the filing deadline for campaign contribution reports.
