Senate panel OKs disclosure bill

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 14, 2009 - Page: 6A

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The Jindal administration won state Senate committee approval Wednesday of legislation requiring certain appointees to disclose campaign contributions they have made.

Senate Bill 195 would cover people directly employed by a statewide elected official as an agency head and people appointed to state boards and commissions who are subject to personal financial disclosure laws.

If they’ve made contributions or loans in excess of $1,000 to a candidate, the appointee would have to disclose the information when they file annual ethics reports.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive counsel Jimmy Faircloth said the legislation came as the administration’s counter to state Rep. Neil Abramson’s proposal that would require elected officials to disclose when they appoint campaign contributors.

Faircloth has consistently opposed requiring the elected official file the report. He earlier opposed Abramson’s House Bill 243 saying it would create “an administrative trap for the governor.”

Abramson, D-New Orleans, said the accountability should be with elected officials. He said his bill “promotes transparency” because all the information would be in one place concerning an elected officials appointee-contributors.

Abramson’s bill is pending in a House committee.

“We hoped to have that (Abramson) bill in the same form but that has not happened,” Faircloth told the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.

With a short legislative session at hand, Faircloth said, the governor’s office decided to proceed with SB195 by Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, which moves the reporting requirement to appointees.

“I thought the shoe was on the wrong foot with the other bill,” said Kostelka, who chairs the Senate panel.

Faircloth contended that the Kostelka bill would provide for “even more transparency” than Abramson’s bill. He said it would require an appointee to report all campaign contributions in excess of $1,000 to any elected official.

The information would be revealed in the annual personal disclosure statement that follows the individual’s appointment, Faircloth said.

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, said when governor’s appointees go through Senate confirmation they must disclose the candidates to whom they have made contributions as part of the screening process.