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Show 44th Utah Legislature 'Sunshine bills'sponsored By Roger Scowcraft, Utah Press Association The 44th Utah Legislature convened last week at the state capitol. Gov. Scott M. Matheson delivered the traditional budget address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, who in this 20-day session must hammer out a state budget in the face of increasing demand for state services and "a dramatic withdrawal of federal funds at a time when the state is rapidly growing in population." Budget sessions of the legislature occur every two years, alternately with the 60-day general sessions. According to the state constitution, legislators may vote by a two-thirds majority in both houses to introduce non-budget bills for consideration during a target session. This is called a Senate or House Enabling Resolution (SER, HER), and most of the first week was spent voting on enabling resolutions for non-budget bills. In the interest of time, which is never enough, some legislators have refused on principal to consider any non-budget issue. H.B. 52, the Utah Campaign Disclosure Act, Rep. P. Lloyd Selleneit, R-Bountiful, is one in a group of "Sunshine Bills" now up for consideration. con-sideration. "The concept," says Rep. Selleneit, "is the voter ought to know what kind of special influences are put on a candidate." If passed, H.B. 52 will require that all "candidates for state and local office make public, through specified disclosure procedures, campaign contributions and expenditures, including in-cluding elections limited to referen-dums referen-dums or bond issues." These procedures are already required of federal campaigns (congressional, senatorial, etc.), and in Utah, of the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. H.B. 52 would merely extend the same legal guidelines to all state and local candidates and elections. elec-tions. An election committee would be required to file with the state at specified intervals and five days before : an election, verified financial statement, which "shall be open to public inspection and copying," and include: . The total aggregate amount of contributions received during the reporting period, if over $1000. .: The name and address of each person contributing $200 or more, together with the amount of such ' contribution. Total aggregate expenditures, and an itemization of each expenditure over $1000. The balance of cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, and the total aggregate amount of unpaid debts. . Expenditures made and contributions con-tributions received during prior reporting periods in the calendar year. In a campaign termination report, the name and address of any person who receives surplus funds from the campaign, or reimbursement. All campaign advertising must . contain a disclosure of the registered committee responsible for its publication. A committee member or candidate convicted of willful violation of these guidelines would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor and subject to impeachment. "We have been trying to get such a bill through for the last five years," says Patricia Brim, president of Utah Common Cause. "There is a great deal of opposition still, and it's very vocal here among the legislators not to have to disclose their finances. They say it will discourage prospective candidates from running for office if they have to keep records. "Everybody has to keep records," she added. "Any business or household has to in order to pay its taxes and meet . its bills. We are quite sure that no candidate who runs for office ever loses track of the people who give him money because he's going to be back in several years asking them for donations again. All we're asking is he make those records available to the public through the press before an election, not after." "If this were a general session," says Rep. Selleneit, "I'd give H. B. 52 an excellent chance of passage. Obviously there would be some animosity, some resentment, a feeling perhaps that it's reactionary, a spinoff of some of the things that happened this summer, or maybe of the Nixon era, going back that far." "It is partisanship on both sides that is behind some of the opposition," says Patricia Brim. "The bills are being treated a little bit like political football. If the people want to know how the political races of their representatives are being funded, if they would like to know who is lobbying and spending great amounts of money up here at the capitol on their legislators, they should make that known to their Senator and Representative." According to Rep. Selleneit, "A telephone call to their Representative and their Senator encouraging openness open-ness in government would be helpful." Other "Sunshine Bills" being examined by this legislature include HER H.B. 9, Public Body Exclusion, and HER H.B. 18, Public Meetings Act Amendments (Both to open to the public legislative party caucuses and rules and sifting committees(; HER . H.B. 40, Lobbyist's Control (to require -lobbyists to register with the state and report expenditures); H.J.R. 19, Ethics -and Organization Rules Revision (to establish in state government a bipartisan ethics committee with enforcement en-forcement powers); and HERH.B. 91, Campaign Disclosure Amendments, w hich is similar to H. B. 52. "If these bills come out (i.e., receive senate and house enabling resolution)," says Rep. Selleneit, "legislators will probably take the one that has the less stringent penalties." |