BILL ANALYSIS
By: Rose
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Under current law, candidates are required to report the total amount of political contributions accepted during each reporting period. Current law also requires candidates and officeholders to report certain loans made to the person during the reporting period. As written, however, this requirement does not include reporting of the total amount of loans that are actually in a candidate's or officeholder's account, which means there is no way for a person to verify that the loan proceeds have actually been deposited into the candidate or officeholder's account. This is especially a problem where it seems that candidates are reporting to have more money in campaign accounts than they actually have. To confirm such loans have been deposited, CSHB 2249 requires that activity reports include the total amount of loans maintained in accounts at the end of the reporting period and provides that reported loans are reported as accepted contributions.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
CSHB 2249 amends the Election Code to require political activity reports to include the total amount of proceeds of loans made to filer, including interest or other income on those loan proceeds, as maintained in one or more accounts, as of the last day of the reporting period. The bill also requires an amount reported as a loan to also be reported as a political contribution accepted by the candidate, officeholder, or committee.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2005.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
The substitute modifies the original by adding the provision requiring loans to be reported as political contributions.