GVA committee debates campaign-reporting software, beginning/ending fund-balance rules

Representative Ben Koppelman, District 16 of West Fargo, raised questions Tuesday in the Government and Veterans Affairs committee about how a proposed overhaul of campaign reporting would treat certain items and whether the new system should require candidates to report beginning and ending fund balances.

Koppelman said he found three items he wanted the committee to consider: the definition of “contribution” on page 5 and whether use of property (for example, “putting a sign on the side of a building… or on a semi truck trailer”) could be treated as a loan and therefore a contribution; language on page 6 that describes a “deposit of money or anything of value” as an expenditure; and a provision on page 13 that would require beginning and ending fund balances to be entered into the system.

The matters matter because the bill pairs statutory changes with a new vendor-supplied reporting…