NCPE at NV Legislature SB 494 - dealing with primary, general, and municipal elections, SB 494 changes the filing deadline for campaign contribution reports.
To: Chairwoman Senator Barbara Cegavske and Members, Senate Legislative Operations and Election Committee
From: Craig Walton, President, and Members, Nevada Center for Public Ethics
Date: April 2, 2007
Subject: Support for SB 494, with comment and suggestions.
Here is the testimony we plan to present on Tuesday, April 10, in support of SB 494.
My name is Craig Walton, and I am speaking as President, and behalf of the members of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics. The following comments are limited to puzzling or very high- profile sections of the bill.
I. A Better filing date:
In all of its sections dealing with primary, general, and municipal elections, SB 494 changes the filing deadline for campaign contribution reports to 21 days before, instead of 7 days before, up to 25 days after, instead of 12 days after; it also requires a second filing 3 days before, to cover the period from 24 days through 5 days before that election. This takes early voting into account. Current law forces the voter to choose between knowing who gave what to whom and NOT voting early, or voting early and not knowing who gave what to whom. In addition, these changes do 2 things – they make the largest part of campaign contributions known to the public 3 weeks before election day, which gives us time to find the information and consider it, and they also cover the smaller period inside of that first window, so that monies showing up in the very last days are still reported, 3 days before voting, so that if we or reporters work at it, even these last-minute contributions can be known before we vote. These are positive changes, because they give us reasonable time to consider what monies are coming from and to whom, and they also allow the early voter to know much of what, at present, he cannot know. We strongly support these changes as described in SB 494.
II. What happened to special elections?
In 3 places -- Sec. 4, pg. 12, #5, lines 7- p.12, line 21; Sec. 6, #4, pg. 18, line 3 - pg. 19, line 9; and Sec. 8, pg. 24, #4, lines 29 – pg. 25, line 2, a possible problem arises: these 3 places in the bill make no changes in reporting deadlines for special elections. But candidates raise money for them, so it should be reported. Further, if there is early voting for a special election, then we must account for that with our campaign finance disclosure reporting. The same language provided for primary and general elections, and municipal elections, should also be provided in these 3 places, for special elections.
Thank you for your consideration.
Craig Walton, President, on behalf of the 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.
