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Committee advances bill raising contribution reporting threshold to $200, ethics office flags form updates
Summary
A House committee advanced a campaign finance bill changing reporting rules so individual contributions of $200 or less are aggregated rather than itemized. The ethics administrator said records still must be kept and warned about overlapping deadlines and enforcement procedures.
A House committee on Governmental Affairs advanced a campaign finance measure that would raise the per-contributor reporting threshold from $50 to $200, changing how small donations are disclosed on candidate reports.
The change, as explained by David Bordelon, ethics administrator, would let candidates aggregate contributions of $200 or less on public filings while still collecting the contributor’s name and address in their internal records. "What this would allow," Bordelon said, "is you to take contributions up to $200. You still have to take their information from the contributor, but you do not report that individually on your report. There will now be an entry for aggregated contributions under that amount." He flagged a practical need to set a clear effective date for updating court-clerk forms and warned candidates about overlapping filing deadlines for early spring elections.
Lawmakers pressed for details about how the change would work in practice. Representative Shamarhorn asked whether raffle-ticket purchases that exceed the threshold require name collection; Bordelon said present law already requires collecting name and address whenever a contributor exceeds the reporting limit and that the bill would simply raise that line from $50 to $200. Representative Marcel and others raised concerns about recordkeeping with small-dollar, high-volume donations collected through QR codes; Bordelon answered that candidates must maintain contributor records and that ethics staff would request them during investigations.
Bordelon also summarized enforcement processes and penalties: late-filing fees accrue daily; inaccurate-report penalties can include board fines and, in cases involving misuse of contributions, litigation that the attorney general would pursue. "Late-day penalties occur automatically," he said, and collection is handled through the attorney general’s office after administrative notices and possible waiver requests.
Supporters said the change would simplify reporting and reduce burdens on campaigns and clerks. Critics asked whether the aggregation could weaken public disclosure; Bordelon said the only disclosure difference is that contributor names under $200 would not appear line-by-line on public filings, though the aggregated totals would. The chair moved to report the bill favorable and the committee agreed to forward the measure.
The committee recorded no roll-call vote on the motion; staff said the bill will next proceed to the floor as reported by the committee.
