SB380: Bill Text

LRB-4071/2

JTK&MES:skg:jlb

1995 - 1996 LEGISLATURE

1995 Senate BILL 380

October 25, 1995 - Introduced by Senators Clausing, Burke and Decker, cosponsored by Representatives Dueholm, Baldus, Baldwin, Black, Bock, Boyle, Plombon, Vander Loop, R. Young and Wilder. Referred to Committee on State Government Operations and Corrections.

SB380,1,7 An Act to repeal 11.06 (11), 11.24 (1m), 11.26 (1) (a) to (d), 11.26 (2) (a) to (e) and 11.26 (12m); to renumber and amend 11.26 (1) (intro.), 11.26 (2) (intro.) and 11.50 (9); to amend 11.26 (5), 11.26 (9), 11.26 (10), 11.50 (2) (b) 5., 11.50 (3) (a) 1. and 2., 11.50 (4) (c) and (d), 11.50 (6), 71.10 (3) (a) and 71.10 (3) (b) and (c); and to create 11.31 (5m), 11.50 (3) (c), 11.50 (4) (e), 11.50 (9) (b) and 71.10 (3) (am) of the statutes; relating to: various changes in the campaign finance law and designations for the Wisconsin election campaign fund.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

Campaign finance changes

Currently, individuals and committees making political contributions to candidates for state or local office are subject to limitations on the amount or value of any contribution or contributions that may be made cumulatively to any candidate in a campaign. The limitations vary from $10,000 in the case of an individual making a contribution to a candidate for statewide office to $250 in the case of an individual making a contribution to a candidate for certain local offices, and from $43,238 in the case of a committee making a contribution to a candidate for governor to $200 in the case of a committee making a contribution to a candidate for certain local offices. This bill replaces all these limitations with a contribution limitation of $50 applicable to an individual or committee making any contribution or contributions cumulatively to any candidate for state or local office, per campaign.

Currently, an individual or committee making expenditures to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate in an election independently of any candidate or personal campaign committee is not subject to any limitation upon the amount of expenditures that may be made. The bill imposes a limitation upon such expenditures of $50 per candidate per campaign.

Currently, if an individual or organization receives a political contribution consisting of money and transfers the contribution to another individual or organization without exercising discretion as to the amount to be transferred and the individual to whom or the organization to which the transfer is made, the contribution is considered to be made by the original contributor for purposes of reporting by the ultimate recipient. The contribution is also treated as an individual contribution for purposes of determining contribution limitations and qualifying contributions for public grants. The individual or organization making the transfer is called a "conduit" under the law. In most cases, a conduit is required to register and file campaign finance reports unless the conduit does not transfer any contributions to candidates or to personal campaign, legislative campaign or political party committees.

The bill treats a contribution of money transferred by a conduit as a contribution from the conduit rather than from the individual contributor for purposes of reporting by the ultimate recipient, and for purposes of determining contribution limitations and qualifying contributions for public grants. Under the bill, conduit contributions made by a committee are included within the overall contribution limitation of 45% of a candidate's spending level that may be derived from contributions received from committees and public grants. These conduit contributions may not be used to qualify for a public grant.

Currently, candidates for state office other than district attorney, court of appeals judge or circuit judge may qualify to receive public grants to finance certain campaign expenses. The maximum public grant available to a candidate is that amount which, when added to contributions received by the candidate from committees other than political party and legislative campaign committees, equals 45% of the candidate's spending limit. The bill provides that if a candidate who is eligible for a public grant declines to accept it, and the candidate's opponent qualifies to receive a grant, the candidate's opponent is eligible to receive a supplemental grant equal to an additional 100% of the maximum grant to which he or she would otherwise be entitled.

Wisconsin election campaign fund designations

Currently, an individual may designate $1 of state money, and a couple filing a joint return may designate $2 of state money, to the Wisconsin election campaign fund. The fund provides public grants to qualifying candidates for state office to be used for specified purposes.

The bill permits an individual to designate $3 and a couple filing a joint return to designate $6 to the fund. The bill also permits an individual who has an income tax liability, is due a refund or is required to file a return to contribute any amount of money to the campaign fund. If an individual's contribution exceeds the amount of his or her refund, he or she must include a check with his or her tax return for the difference between the amount of the contribution and the amount of the refund. If an individual who makes a contribution has a tax liability or has no tax liability and is due no refund, he or she must include a check for the amount of the contribution with his or her tax return.

Contributions to the fund do not increase or decrease a person's tax liability and the bill requires the tax form to contain this information. The bill also requires that the state election campaign fund designation on the state tax form be similar in type size and style to the federal presidential election campaign fund designation on the federal tax form.

Other

For further information see the state fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SB380, s. 1 Section 1. 11.06 (11) of the statutes is repealed.

SB380, s. 2 Section 2. 11.24 (1m) of the statutes is repealed.

SB380, s. 3 Section 3. 11.26 (1) (intro.) of the statutes is renumbered 11.26 (1) and amended to read:

SB380,3,9 11.26 (1) No individual may make any contribution or contributions to a candidate for election or nomination to any of the following offices state or local office and to any individual or committee under s. 11.06 (7) acting solely in support of such a candidate or solely in opposition to the candidate's opponent to the extent of more than a total of the amounts specified $50 per candidate:.

SB380, s. 4 Section 4. 11.26 (1) (a) to (d) of the statutes are repealed.

SB380, s. 5 Section 5. 11.26 (2) (intro.) of the statutes is renumbered 11.26 (2) and amended to read:

SB380,4,2 11.26 (2) No committee other than a political party committee or legislative campaign committee may make any contribution or contributions to a candidate for election or nomination to any of the following offices state or local office and to any individual or committee under s. 11.06 (7) acting solely in support of such a candidate or solely in opposition to the candidate's opponent to the extent of more than a total of the amounts specified $50 per candidate:.

SB380, s. 6 Section 6. 11.26 (2) (a) to (e) of the statutes are repealed.

SB380, s. 7 Section 7. 11.26 (5) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB380,4,11 11.26 (5) The contribution limits provided in subs. (1) and (4) do not apply to a candidate who makes any contribution or contributions to his or her own campaign for office from the candidate's personal funds or property or the personal funds or property which are owned jointly or as marital property with the candidate's spouse, with respect to any contribution or contributions made to that candidate's campaign only. A candidate's personal contributions shall be deposited in his or her campaign depository account and reported in the normal manner.

SB380, s. 8 Section 8. 11.26 (9) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB380,4,24 11.26 (9) (a) No Except as authorized under this paragraph, no individual who is a candidate for state or local office may receive and accept contributions valued at more than 65% of the value of the total disbursement level determined under s. 11.31 for the office for which he or she is a candidate during any primary and election campaign combined from all committees subject to a filing requirement, including political party and legislative campaign committees. A candidate for state office whose grant under s. 11.50 exceeds the contribution limitation authorized by this paragraph may exceed the contribution limitation otherwise applicable to the extent required to accept the full amount of the grant received by the candidate under s. 11.50, but any contributions received and accepted by such a candidate from committees other than the Wisconsin election campaign fund reduce the amount of the grant which the candidate may accept by an amount equal to such contributions.

SB380,5,7 (b) No individual who is a candidate for state or local office may receive and accept contributions valued at more than 45% of the value of the total disbursement level determined under s. 11.31 for the office for which he or she is a candidate during any primary and election campaign combined from all committees other than political party and legislative campaign committees subject to a filing requirement. This paragraph does not apply to a candidate for state office who qualifies for a supplementary grant under s. 11.50 (3) (c) or (4) (e).

SB380, s. 9 Section 9. 11.26 (10) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB380,5,24 11.26 (10) No candidate for state office who files a sworn statement and application to receive a grant from the Wisconsin election campaign fund may make contributions of more than 200% of the amounts amount specified in sub. (1) to the candidate's own campaign from the candidate's personal funds or property or the personal funds or property which are owned jointly or as marital property with the candidate's spouse, unless the board determines that the candidate is not eligible to receive a grant, the candidate withdraws his or her application under s. 11.50 (2) (h), or s. 11.50 (2) (i) applies. For purposes of this subsection, any contribution received by a candidate or his or her personal campaign committee from a committee which is registered with the federal elections commission as the authorized committee of the candidate under 2 USC 432 (e) shall be treated as a contribution made by the candidate to his or her own campaign. The contribution limit of sub. (4) applies to amounts contributed by such a candidate personally to the candidate's own campaign and to other campaigns, except that a candidate may exceed the limitation if authorized under this subsection to contribute more than the amount specified to the candidate's own campaign, up to the amount of the limitation.

SB380, s. 10 Section 10. 11.26 (12m) of the statutes is repealed.

SB380, s. 11 Section 11. 11.31 (5m) of the statutes is created to read:

SB380,6,6 11.31 (5m) Independent disbursements. No individual, other than a candidate, and no committee, other than a personal campaign committee, may make disbursements, which are to be used to advocate the election or defeat of any clearly identified candidate in an election, exceeding $50 in amount or value per candidate per campaign.

SB380, s. 12 Section 12. 11.50 (2) (b) 5. of the statutes is amended to read:

SB380,7,4 11.50 (2) (b) 5. The financial reports filed by or on behalf of the candidate as of the date of the spring or September primary, or the date that the special primary is or would be held, if required, indicate that the candidate has received at least the amount provided in this subdivision, from contributions of money, other than loans, made by individuals, which have been received during the period ending on the date of the spring primary and July 1 preceding such date in the case of candidates at the spring election, or the date of the September primary and January 1 preceding such date in the case of candidates at the general election, or the date that a special primary will or would be held, if required, and 90 days preceding such date or the date a special election is ordered, whichever is earlier, in the case of special election candidates, which contributions are in the aggregate amount of $100 $50 or less, and which are fully identified and itemized as to the exact source thereof. A contribution received from a conduit which is identified by the conduit as originating from an individual shall be considered a contribution made by the individual. Only the first $100 of an aggregate contribution of more than $100 may be counted toward the required percentage. For a candidate at the spring or general election for an the office identified in s. 11.26 (1) (a) of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, state superintendent or justice or a any candidate at a special election, the required amount to qualify for a grant is 5% of the candidate's authorized disbursement limitation under s. 11.31. For any other candidate at the general election, the required amount to qualify for a grant is 10% of the candidate's authorized disbursement limitation under s. 11.31.

SB380, s. 13 Section 13. 11.50 (3) (a) 1. and 2. of the statutes are amended to read:

SB380,7,9 11.50 (3) (a) 1. If an election for state superintendent is scheduled in the following year, 8% of the fund shall be placed in a superintendency account. From this account, an equal amount shall be disbursed to the campaign depository account of each eligible candidate by the state treasurer, except as provided in par. (c).

SB380,7,13 2. If an election for justice is scheduled in the following year, 8% of the fund shall be placed in a supreme court account. From this account, an equal amount shall be disbursed to the campaign depository account of each eligible candidate by the state treasurer, except as provided in par. (c).

SB380, s. 14 Section 14. 11.50 (3) (c) of the statutes is created to read:

SB380,7,20 11.50 (3) (c) If an eligible candidate for state superintendent or justice is opposed by a candidate whose name appears on a spring or special election ballot, and the eligible candidate's opponent does not qualify for or accept a grant in whole or in part or file an affidavit under s. 11.31 (2m), the eligible candidate shall receive a supplementary grant equivalent to 100% of the maximum amount of the grant otherwise available to the candidate.

SB380, s. 15 Section 15. 11.50 (4) (c) and (d) of the statutes are amended to read:

SB380,8,2 11.50 (4) (c) The legislative and special election campaign account shall be divided into a senate campaign account to receive 25% of the moneys, and an assembly campaign account to receive 75% of the moneys. Each account shall then be apportioned between all eligible candidates for the same office in the entire state. No apportionment shall be made by legislative district, except as provided in par. (e).

SB380,8,5 (d) Within the accounts established under this subsection for each office at each general election, the entire amount of all available moneys shall be apportioned equally to all eligible candidates, except as provided in par. (e).

SB380, s. 16 Section 16. 11.50 (4) (e) of the statutes is created to read: