Washington State House of Representatives Office of Program Research	BILL ANALYSIS
State Government Committee

HB 1352

Brief Description:  Correcting inaccurate or procedurally obsolete provisions of the public disclosure commission law.

Sponsors:  Representatives McMorris, D. Schmidt, McDermott, Schindler, Haigh, Lambert and Miloscia; by request of Public Disclosure Commission.

Brief Summary of Bill

$Eliminates the reporting of expenditures for compensating signature gatherers for initiative and referendum petitions.

$Clarifies the definitions of ?general election@ and ?primary@.

Hearing Date:  2/23/01

Staff:  Catherine Blinn (786‑7114).

Background: 

The Public Disclosure Act (PDA) requires the disclosure of political campaign financing, lobbying financing, political advertising financing, and the financial affairs of elected officials and candidates.  With regard to campaign financing, candidates and political committees must report all contributions and expenditures to the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) at the beginning of a campaign and at specified intervals during the campaign.  Each report must specify the funds on hand at the beginning of the interval; each contributor, together with the date and amount of each contribution; each lender, together with the date and amount of each loan, promissory note, or security instrument; each candidate or political committee that received funds, together with the date and amounts of each transfer; each expenditure, together with the date, amount and purpose of the expenditure; each expenditure for compensating signature gatherers for initiative and referendum petitions; the surplus or deficit of contributions over expenditures; the disposition of any surplus funds; and the amount of funds received from a non-reporting political committee.  The public can correspond with the PDC either directly or through the office of the secretary of state.

?General election@ is defined in the PDA as ?the election that results in the election of a person to a state office.  It does not include a primary.@ ?Primary@ is defined in the PDA as the procedure for nominating a candidate to state office pursuant to the procedures for partisan and nonpartisan primaries, or any other primary for an election that uses established procedures for partisan and nonpartisan primaries.

Summary of Bill: 

Candidates and political committees are no longer required to report expenditures for compensating signature gatherers for initiative and referendum petitions.  The office of the secretary of state is no longer designated as a place for the public to correspond with the PDC.  The section addressing contributions made prior to December 3, 1992 is repealed.

The definitions of ?general election@ and ?primary@ are restricted to only apply to the section of the PDA that delineates campaign limits.  The definition of ?primary@ is also simplified to mean ?the election that nominates a candidate to state office.@

Rulemaking Authority:  No express authority.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not Requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.