Committee adopts substitute for ethics bill after trimming immunity language

The State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections Committee adopted Proposed Substitute B for Senate Bill 5143 and recommended the bill be sent to the rules committee.

Staff summarized that the underlying bill would revise the ethics and public service act: among other changes it raised the gift reporting threshold from $50 to $100, expanded what could be posted on a legislator's official website, and in its original form granted civil and criminal immunity for official acts taken by members and employees of the legislative and executive ethics boards. Proposed Substitute B restores the original definition of "beneficial interest," authorizes the ethics board to adjust the aggregate gift amount for inflation every five years on a permissive basis, and strikes the immunity provision from the legislative and executive ethics boards.

Senator Wilson offered an amendment that would have reinserted a narrower immunity covering civil suits for board members and investigators and an absolute privilege for statements to the boards; the transcript records that the amendment would not have extended immunity to other employees. Committee members discussed procedural order for substitutes and amendments; the ethics board had not reviewed the measure, according to staff. The committee approved the substitute by voice vote; the chair ruled the bill "passed subject to signatures."