Committee clears change to campaign-account termination threshold
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Summary
House Bill 2450 would limit automatic termination of inactive campaign accounts to those holding $1,000 or less in assets and liabilities; committee adopted a technical amendment and passed the bill amid debate over whether the prior law had yet taken effect.
The Committee on Elections passed House Bill 2450 as amended, changing the statute that would automatically terminate a campaign account after a specified period of inactivity by exempting accounts that hold more than $1,000 or whose liabilities exceed $1,000.
The reviser said HB2450 would amend the 2025 law requiring termination of inactive campaign accounts by adding a dollar threshold: accounts with more than $1,000 in cash or more than $1,000 in aggregate liabilities would be exempt from automatic termination. Members asked for clarification and the reviser confirmed the bill uses an "or" provision: either assets or liabilities over $1,000 preserves the account.
Chair and proponents described an amendment to align a separate statute clarified last year about accepting general-election donations before the primary but not spending them until after the primary; the amendment makes that rule explicit across statutes and was characterized as statutory cleanup. Committee discussion also touched on whether the prior 2025 law had been executed; the chair said the public disclosure commission judged the clock started when the 2025 law passed and that the termination provisions have not yet been executed because no subsequent election cycle had completed the statutory period.
Ranking minority members said they were uncomfortable making the threshold change before the prior law had been fully executed and that the change could be drastic; the vice chairman argued waiting could cause irreversible consequences if accounts were wiped out in the meantime. The committee adopted the amendment and passed HB2450 as amended.
