Committee hears bill to double candidate contribution limits, index them to inflation and remove party caps

Kansas Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs members held a hearing on Senate Bill 177, which would raise and reconfigure campaign contribution limits, add a biennial inflation adjustment and remove state caps on contributions to party committees.

The bill matters because it would change statutory limits for candidate contributions, create a mechanism to increase those limits based on the consumer price index every two years and eliminate existing caps on contributions to party committees — changes that witnesses told the committee could either reduce litigation risk or create new routes for large donors to move funds to candidates.

Jason, a committee staff member who briefed lawmakers, said the bill amends K.S.A. 25-4115 and adds a new section to the campaign finance act that ‘‘doubles the contribution limits for contributions made to candidates or candidate committees for primary and general elections’’ and bifurcates local candidate limits based on the population of the electoral district.

Under the bill as described to the committee, candidates in jurisdictions with populations under 50,000 would fall under the same limits as state House candidates — raised to $1,000…