Committee gives favorable report to HB 250, clarifying candidate economic-interest filing deadlines

The Ethics and Campaign Finance Committee gave a favorable report on HB 250 at its meeting, moving the bill forward after Representative Underwood described changes to when candidates must file statements of economic interest.

Representative Underwood, who presented the bill, said the measure aims to simplify timing rules for filings. "We all know that the law requires us to follow those statements of economic interest," Underwood said, and the bill clarifies several five‑day filing windows tied to different routes to ballot access. Underwood explained that party‑affiliated candidates would file a statement "within 5 days of the deadline to qualify" through their party, while independent candidates would have a separate five‑day window tied to the primary timing and petition submission processes.

The clarification is intended to let candidates and election officials use an existing, current statement filed for another purpose as proof to the ethics commission, avoiding duplicate filings when a current disclosure already exists. Committee members questioned how local qualifying procedures interact with the bill. One member raised uncertainty about whether the five‑day clock begins when a candidate files qualifying papers with a municipal clerk or when a campaign committee is formed; the committee did not adopt a definitive local‑level interpretation at the meeting.

Committee members also discussed campaign reporting thresholds. Committee discussion noted that candidates who raise or spend $1,000 must file campaign reports under the referenced campaign reporting rules (referred to in the meeting as "FCPA"), but that reaching that reporting threshold does not itself trigger a statement of economic interest filing under the bill as presented.

A staff member from the Legislative Services Agency advised members reviewing a separate, longer comparative report on the state's ethics laws to start with the recommendations section and consult specific sections for detailed constitutional and comparative analyses. "If you look at the recommendations, you can see, oh, I'm interested in that topic, and you can thumb back through specific sections pretty easily to find the conflict of interest or the statement of economic interest in all those different areas," the staff member said.

Representative Travis moved a favorable report on HB 250, and Representative England seconded. The committee voiced aye and the chair declared the bill had a favorable report.

The committee did not adopt further amendments to the language during the meeting. The measure will proceed according to the legislative process after receiving the committee's favorable report.