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Committee amends and approves bill raising campaign disclosure threshold and adds scheduled increases
Summary
House Bill 1377 was amended to raise the disclosure threshold from $200 to $250 and to add a scheduled increase after 10 years; the House Finance and Taxation Committee voted to recommend the bill as amended.
The House Finance and Taxation Committee on Jan. 21 considered House Bill 1377, an amendment to campaign reporting thresholds. Representative Olson and Representative Vista presented and explained an amendment that increases the threshold at which contributions or expenditures must be reported, moving the current $200 threshold to $250 and adding a fixed $100 increase after 10 years.
Representative Vista told the committee the amendment was meant to align reporting rules across candidate, ballot committee and political committee filers and to give filers predictability. "Keeping it static for that 10-year period gives candidates, disclosure filers and donors clarity," Vista said. Committee members discussed shorter versus longer indexing schedules; some raised concerns about changing the threshold too infrequently.
The committee adopted the amendment on a voice vote and then voted to recommend a do-pass on the amended bill. Clerk roll call indicated the motion carried; the chair said the vote appeared unanimous. Representative Vista agreed to carry the bill to the next stage.
Supporters argued the change modernizes an old threshold and reduces administrative confusion; opponents were not recorded in committee testimony. The committee approved the amended bill and selected a bill carrier to advance it to the next legislative steps.
