'Senate Wants Monthly Disclosure of Ballot Question Financing'
By Sam Drysdale | State House News Service
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EXCERPT BELOW:
"Sen. Bruce Tarr said the bill is important because it recognizes that funds raised for proposed ballot questions should be subject to the same standards of transparency and accountability as other political activities in the state. But, he said those standards should apply to local ballot questions too.
He introduced an amendment that requires anyone who has given $1,000 to a local ballot initiative to be subject to the same campaign finance reporting standards as statewide initiatives.
Tar said if the Senate did not adopt the amendment it would lead to the question of “what are we doing?”
“Transparency for some but not for all. Transparency for state questions, but not for local questions, it would be unconscionable to leave these local ballot questions out of the reporting that we contemplate today,” he said.
DiDomenico said he agreed with the intent of Tarr’s amendment, but noted the bill is dealing with statewide ballot questions only and that municipal ballot question committees do not report finances the same way. So, changing the local reporting requirements would affect local clerks and lawmakers haven’t had a chance to discuss those effects with the stakeholders, he said.
DiDomenico and Sen. John Keenan agreed there are other bills that the amendment could be better suited for.
Keenan said Tarr’s amendment could apply to a bill (S 506) that requires any person, corporation, association, organization or other group that spends or commits to spend $1,000 or more in the aggregate to influence a warrant article or vote on an article at a town meeting to file detailed reports with the town clerk. That bill is before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Senators voted 31-6 to reject the amendment."
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