Report Title:

Campaign Finance Reform

 

Description:

Prohibits campaign contributions through intermediaries. Requires loans to a campaign by a financial institution to be made on the same terms as offered to the general public and subject to the $10,000 limit. Prohibits fundraisers during regular session and 30 days before and after the session.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

817

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 11-199, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:

"(c) No candidate, committee, or party shall accept a contribution of more than $100 in cash from a single person without issuing a receipt to the donor and keeping a record of the transaction. No contributions shall be accepted via an intermediary. For the purposes of this section, "intermediary" means an individual who transmits a contribution to a candidate, party, or committee for another person unless the other person is from the individual's employer, immediate family, or an association to which the individual belongs. "Intermediary" shall not mean a candidate, the candidate's treasurer, a professional fundraiser, or a volunteer hosting a fundraising event in the volunteer's home."

SECTION 2. Section 11-203, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) There shall be no more than two fundraisers held for a person prior to a general or special election in which that person is either elected or defeated[.], and no fundraiser for a state senator or member of the house of representatives may be held during the period beginning on the thirtieth day before the date a regular legislative session convenes and continuing thirty days past that session's adjournment."

SECTION 3. Section 11-204, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) (1) No person or any other entity shall make contributions to:

(A) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a two-year office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than $2,000 during an election period;

(B) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a four-year statewide office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than $6,000 during an election period; and

(C) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a four-year nonstatewide office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than $4,000 during an election period.

These limits shall apply to in-kind contributions, such as the financing of brochures, advertisements, or other types of media. In-kind contributions are deemed to have a monetary value equivalent to the fair market value of the contribution. These limits shall not apply to a loan made to a candidate by a financial institution in the ordinary course of business.

(2) For purposes of this section, the length of term of an office shall be the usual length of term of the office as unaffected by reapportionment, a special election to fill a vacancy, or any other factor causing the term of the office the candidate is seeking to be less than the usual length of term of that office."

SECTION 4. Section 11-205.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (e) to read as follows:

"(e) Any loan by a financial institution regulated by the State or a federally chartered depository institution [and] shall be made in accordance with applicable law in the ordinary course of business[, or a] and shall be made in the ordinary course of business and on the same terms ordinarily available to the general public, and shall be subject to the loan restrictions of subsection (b). A loan by a candidate of the candidate's own funds, or a loan from immediate family members of a candidate using their own funds to the candidate's committee shall not be deemed a contribution and not subject to the contribution limits provided in section 11-204 or the loan limit and repayment provisions of subsection (b) and (c); provided that loans from the immediate family members of the candidate shall remain subject to the provisions in section 11-204(c)."

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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