Legislative Agenda 06
LOBBYING
1. Prohibit Gifts: Ban registered lobbyists from providing gifts
($10 exception) to lawmakers, their family members, and legislative
staff.
2. Prohibit Contributions: Ban fundraising, fundraiser planning,
or campaign contributions from registered lobbyists to Legislative
and Executive branch candidates.
3. Fully implement the Lobbying Reform bill (SB 612) before
2007:
• Immediately: Close the goodwill lobbying loophole, prohibit
registered lobbyists from serving as a campaign treasurer for
a legislative candidate, institute the 6-month cooling-off period
before legislators become lobbyists, and create the “no
gift registry”.
• As soon as funds will allow: Require monthly reports
of what lobbyists are spending on legislators while the legislature
is in session, quarterly reports when not in session.
ETHICS
1. Create an Independent Ethics Commission that uniformly covers
Legislative and Executive branches, which:
• Establishes ethical standards for state government service.
• Has authority to perform routine audits and issue subpoenas
at its own initiative.
• Is bipartisan, non-political and independent of any branch
of state government.
• Has authority to impose civil penalties for non-compliance
and ethics violations.
• Is funded independently of the legislature.
LEGISLATIVE
PROCESS
2. Budget & Appropriations: The budget and technical corrections
bills are not the place to write or rewrite laws.
• Ban special provisions from the budget bill.
• Ban substantive material from the technical corrections
bill.
• Require all appropriations of funds to be itemized.
• Provide a 3-day window between time the budget is referred
to the floor and the floor vote.
2. Committees: Ensure that committee membership assignments
and meetings are consistent and open.
• Eliminate changing the make-up of committees. All membership
assignments should be final.
• Ban committee floaters and prohibit stacking committees
with lawmakers who are not full-time committee members.
• Ban committee meetings from being held on chamber floor
and instead hold meetings in a committee meeting room with public
notice and public access provided.
3. Drafting of Bills: Bills without content should not be eligible
for filing. Ban blank bills.
OPEN
GOVERNMENT
1. Provide complete public access to all meetings: Every meeting
of the General Assembly should be open to the public, including
all budget and conference committee meetings.
2. Make more information accessible: More frequent and timely
information about the legislative process should be posted on-line
including:
• All committee substitutes with a required 24-hour public
notification in advance of the committee meeting.
• All legislative votes and up-to-date bill summaries
and history.
• Budget bill, even while printing.
• Any information available to legislative staff and members
in general on the internal computer system, should also be made
available to the public on the Internet, including travel records.
• Require votes in all Legislative committees, subcommittees
and floor sessions to be roll call votes, which are recorded
and posted on the Internet.
• Audio recording of committee meetings.
CAMPAIGN
FINANCE
1. Use of Campaign Funds: Limit use of leftover campaign funds
after retirement from candidacy or office. Strictly prohibit
using campaign money for personal use at any time including
entertaining expenditures with lobbyists.
2. Campaign Contributions: Limit political party caucus contributions
to candidates for legislative and executive branch office to
$4,000 per cycle.
