Committee advances ethics bill to centralize campaign and disclosure filings with state

The House Governmental Affairs full committee advanced Senate Bill 199, an ethics bill presented by Sen. Watson and the director of the State Ethics Commission, that would centralize campaign contribution and financial disclosure reporting at the state level and impose other changes to campaign finance and ethics reporting.

Sen. Watson said the bill returns local filing obligations to the State Ethics Commission beginning Jan. 1, 2027, standardizes campaign committee disclosure to quarterly reports timed Jan. 31, April 30, July 30 and Oct. 20, and requires political action committees to maintain separate bank accounts. He said the measure also changes personal financial-disclosure forms to use income ranges rather than exact amounts and narrows the public display of officials’ home addresses on the financial-disclosure reports the commission receives.

“Our goal is to streamline reporting and provide uniformity in all of our reporting,” Sen. Watson told the committee, and he introduced David Amani, identified in committee as director of the State Ethics Commission, to answer technical questions.

The bill’s provisions described by the sponsor include: - Section 1: moving the deadline to file certain complaints to 60 days before an election (the sponsor said current law is 30 days). - Section 2: returning local filing obligations for campaign contributions and financial disclosures to the state effective Jan. 1, 2027, and converting campaign reports to quarterly schedules. - Section 3: requiring elected local officials to affirm they will take training and moving annual financial-closure disclosure deadlines to April 1 each year; creating ranges for reported personal income on disclosure forms. - Section 4: redacting home addresses on public-facing financial-disclosure reports received by the commission while maintaining commission access to addresses for official purposes. - Section 5: consolidating lobbyist reporting into one registration and requiring monthly reporting by the fifth day of each month.

Representative Sanchez asked whether the redaction would remove home addresses from other public sources such as the voter file maintained by the Secretary of State. Sen. Watson said the change is limited to the financial-disclosure reports that the ethics commission receives. Legislative Council staff and the sponsor noted that other processes — for example residency checks under separate laws — remain available.

The committee moved, seconded and approved the bill by voice vote. Members nominated Representative Chaz Cannon to carry the bill to the House floor.

Votes at a glance: committee voice vote to advance SB 199; motion carried and Representative Chaz Cannon named as the floor carrier.