Subcommittee reviews major rewrite of campaign finance law; keeps 48‑hour supplemental reporting and raises late fee to $500

Members of the Government and Veterans Affairs Committee, joined by members of Appropriations, staff from the Secretary of State’s Office and Legislative Council, met in subcommittee to review House-file 02/1956, a comprehensive rewrite that moves existing campaign finance law into a new chapter and makes technical and a few substantive changes.

Representative Vicki Steiner, District 37, opened the session by saying the amendment “looks like we've completely rewritten the entire campaign finance law, but it's actually just moving existing law into 0.2 and there are a few changes.” Dustin Richard of Legislative Council then walked the group through the new chapter and line-by-line redline.

The amendment repeals the existing chapter 16.1 and relocates provisions into a new chapter (cited in the draft as 16.108) while retaining most current reporting and disclosure requirements. Major points discussed included: an exempt‑records threshold, aggregation of expenditures and contributions, the trigger date for supplemental statements, balance reporting, disclosure thresholds for large aggregated contributions, and late‑filing fees.

On public access, Legislative Council staff described the bill as creating an…