SB 861

Under this bill, for campaign finance purposes, a political action committee

includes a person, other than an individual, that spends more than $1,000 in a

12-month period on expenditures for express advocacy or communications that are

susceptible to no reasonable interpretation other than an appeal to vote for or against

a candidate, expenditures made to support or defeat a referendum, and contributions

made to a candidate committee, legislative campaign committee, or political party.

Current law provides that a political action committee is a person, other than

an individual, that either has express advocacy as its major purpose or spends more

than 50 percent of its total spending in a 12-month period on expenditures for

express advocacy, expenditures made to support or defeat a referendum, and

contributions made to a candidate committee, legislative campaign committee, or

political party.

The bill also creates a public campaign financing trust fund from which eligible

candidates may receive amounts to finance their campaigns. Under the bill a

candidate may apply to the Ethics Commission to receive public campaign financing.

The candidate is eligible to receive the financing if he or she agrees to to accept

contributions totalling no more than $100 from any single contributor and accepts

no other contributions. The amount of public financing that a candidate may receive

is equal to six times the amount of the contributions received by the candidate, not

including amounts that the candidate contributes from his or her personal funds.

A candidate who is not in compliance with the campaign finance laws is not eligible

for financing.

Finally, the bill provides that any individual filing a state income tax return

who has a tax liability or who is entitled to a refund may designate $2 for the public

campaign financing trust fund. The designation does not increase an individual's tax

liability or reduce an individual's refund. If the total designations are not sufficient

to fully fund the costs of public campaign financing, including administrative costs,

the bill appropriates additional moneys to finance those costs.