Committee advances bill allowing Campaign Finance Board access to Department of Revenue records for refund administration

The Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee recommended that Senate File 9 be referred to the Senate Taxes Committee after members discussed how the bill would let the Campaign Finance Board use contribution records stored in a Department of Revenue system to administer a refund program.

The measure would allow the Campaign Finance Board to access or use data entered into a Department of Revenue system and classifies much of the related receipt and validation information as private or nonpublic data. The bill also sets a minimum contribution receipt amount of $10 as the trigger for eligibility to apply for the refund and contemplates the electronic system summing contributions to determine eligibility. According to committee discussion, portions of the bill were written to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Why it matters: The bill affects who can see individual contribution records and how those records are treated under state data practices law while establishing mechanics for a campaign contribution refund administered electronically.

Sponsor remarks and technical explanations came from the senator presenting the bill, who said the proposal had moved through elections committee work last year and into tax negotiations before returning to Judiciary and Public Safety for the data-practices jurisdiction. The sponsor told the committee the Campaign Finance Board "requests that it have access, or, use data that is, entered and stored in that system that will be set up by the, by the, Department of Revenue and the characterization, of that, of that data." (Senator Rest)

Committee members questioned two main points: (1) the classification of contribution and receipt data under state data-practices law and (2) the choice to set the reporting threshold at $10 rather than at a lower or higher amount. On classification, committee staff noted there is language in the bill making some lines private data and other lines nonpublic data. "There's also a data privacy classification on page 3, lines 5 through 7," a staff member told senators during the hearing (Miss Primo).

On the $10 threshold, Senator Lemmer asked why the bill uses $10 rather than recognizing every donation. The sponsor said committee deliberations in the elections committee produced the $10 threshold as the efficient point at which receipts become eligible for refund application and that an electronic system would add up receipts across the year and determine refund eligibility. The Campaign Finance Board representative said the system can transmit reports frequently; "once the system is up it certainly can be, it can be even faster than that," (Mr. Sigurdsson, Campaign Finance Board representative).

Procedure and outcome: A motion that "Senate File 9 be recommended to pass and be referred to the committee on taxes" was moved on the record and adopted by voice vote; the committee chair announced "motion prevails." The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript. The sponsor noted fiscal and technical materials were in the committee packet.

What the bill does not yet resolve: Committee discussion noted additional technical choices (classification of particular report fields as private vs. nonpublic) and that the system's operational details — including frequency of reporting and how the electronic validation would be triggered at the $10 threshold — would be handled within the electronic system. The bill’s text and the packet materials attached to the hearing were cited as the sources for those specifics.

Votes at a glance: Senate File 9 — motion to recommend passage and refer to Taxes Committee: adopted by voice vote (tally not specified).