SB 2 - This act creates the "Clean Lobbying Act". Under this act, provisions of law relating to expenditures made by lobbyists are modified. The following items are added to the list of exemptions from the definition of expenditure:• Any item, service, or thing of value transferred to any person within the third degree of affinity of the transferor which is unrelated to any activity of the transferor as a lobbyist;
• Any plaque, award, or item that signifies the honorary recognition of a service or other notable accomplishment and also has a fair market value of less than $50.
Furthermore, honorarium is no longer considered to be an expenditure.
Under current law, lobbyists are permitted to make expenditures on behalf of any person. This act prohibits any lobbyist, lobbyist principal, or person acting on behalf of a lobbyist or lobbyist principal from making any expenditure for any public official or such official's staff or employees, or spouse or dependent children. The act also repeals certain provisions requiring a lobbyist to report expenditures made for such persons.
The definition of public official is modified to include any local government official elected in a county, city, town, or village.
Under this act, lobbyists are prohibited from delivering a contribution to a candidate for elective office unless such contribution is made on the lobbyist's own behalf. "Deliver" is defined as follows: "to physically or electronically transfer a contribution, whether personally or through a third party, in a manner that is explicitly or implicitly attributable to the person making the transfer or to an entity or person who employs, hires, contracts for pay, or compensates that person."
Violations of the provisions of this act are subject to a Class B misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class E felony for subsequent offenses.
This act is similar to HB 60 (2017).
SCOTT SVAGERA