Campaign Spending Commission

COMMISSION ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In alignment with the Commission’s Strategic Plan, some of the Commission’s accomplishments in FY 2008 (July 1, 2007-June 30, 2008) are listed as follows:

1. The Noncandidate Committee Filing System was launched in June, 2008, making all noncandidate committee reports accessible to the public on the internet.  This system together with the Candidate Filing System makes Hawaii one of the most transparent states in the nation for campaign finance, if not the most transparent.  A nationwide study by the Campaign Disclosure Project gave Hawaii an A+ grade for electronic filing and ranked Hawaii #1.

2. The first Candidate Committee training video was placed on the Commission website in June, 2008.  Though Candidate Committee, Noncandidate Committee and Public Financing classes are held statewide in November in odd-numbered years, and in February and July in even-numbered years, the training is now available on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  (Several additional videos became available in FY 2009.)

3. The Blue Ribbon Recodification Committee, consisting of 17 attorneys and Commission staff, worked from September, 2007 through May, 2008, redrafting the Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 11, Subpart B, Campaign Contributions and Expenditures for technical clarity, to remove redundancy and to align subjects in sub-sections rather than spread throughout the subpart.  The Commission staff did extensive work in 2007 to create the draft to present to the Committee in September, 2007, as a starting point.

4. Planning began for the Commission’s 2009 National Trends in Campaign Finance Law Forum to be held October 9, 2009 at the William S. Richardson School of Law.  A partnership was formed with the University of Hawaii law school to provide the site for the forum.  Several speakers from across the United States were contacted and indicated a willingness to make presentations on topics that include a summary of the latest U.S. Supreme Court cases on campaign finance, trends and research in campaign finance laws, and the impact of the internet on campaign finance and elections.

NEW PILOT PUBLIC FINANCING PROGRAM

REMINDER: Candidate and Noncandidate Committees may have additional reports to file under the new pilot Hawaii County Council Comprehensive Public Funding Program passed by the 2008 Legislature in Act 244.  You must be familiar with all aspects of this new law so that you do not miss any reporting requirements and become subject to fines or penalties. The Commission will post additional information on the Comprehensive Public Funding Program through out 2009 as we build the program from scratch.  The Commission plans to develop guidelines, as well as training powerpoints and on-line training videos. The Candidate Filing System and Noncandidate Committee Filing System  may be modified to accommodate this pilot program.  New forms will be developed.  Mailers will also be sent about the program.  This program is separate and apart from the partial public funding program that the Commission has been running since 1980, and will continue to run.  Laws and rules for the two programs are different.

Next Reporting Deadline: February 2, 2009.  For candidates that ran in 2008 and all Noncandidate Committees, the Supplemental Report covers the period November 5, 2008 through December 31, 2008, and for candidates that did not run in 2008, the Supplemental Report covers the period July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008.

IMPORTANT NOTICES

CSC Reports
Next report due for:
Candidates
Supplemental-February 2, 2009

Noncandidate Committee
Supplemental-February 2, 2009

CSC Meetings
January 14, 2009
February 11, 2009
March 11, 2009
April 8, 2009
May 13, 2009
June 10, 2009

CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES TO EQUALIZING FUNDS

There have been court challenges to the provision of equalizing funds in comprehensive public funding programs, due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Davis v. F.E.C. in which the Court said it is unconstitutional to level the playing field when it burdens free speech.  In an action for a Temporary Restraining Order, the U.S. District Court in Arizona ruled that Arizona’s equalizing funds provision is unconstitutional but the T.R.O. was filed too late to stop the provision of these funds in the 2008 election.  The complaint itself is still pending.

FINES AND PENALTIES IMPOSED IN FY 2008

Unreported Contributions/Expenditures/Loans – 2 totaling $8,300
Excess Contributions – 1 totaling $375
Excess Community Donations – 2 totaling $6,950
Advertising violation – 1 totaling $25
Late Reports – 185 fines totaling $20,152.08
Collected Fines Previously Imposed – $78,750

Total – $144,552.08

CANDIDATE FILING SYSTEM CHANGES

1. The Candidate Filing System (CFS) will no longer automatically create an off-setting expenditure on Schedule B for each non-monetary contribution entered on Schedule A.

Candidate committees must manually enter an off-setting expenditure on Schedule B for each non-monetary contribution entered on Schedule A in the CFS, beginning with the Supplemental Report due February 2, 2009, covering the period November 5 through December 31, 2008.

Through the Final Election Period Report due December 4, 2008, the CFS would automatically create an off-setting expenditure on Schedule B for each non-monetary contribution entered on Schedule A.  However, the CFS did not always carryover the off-setting expenditure data into the next reporting period, so the next report’s opening cash-on-hand would be inflated.  The cause of this intermittent glitch cannot be located and thus, the CFS feature creating an automatic off-setting expenditure for non-monetary contributions is now deleted.

2. The CFS will no longer automatically create off-setting contributions on Schedule A for loans that are forgiven on Schedule D or unpaid expenditures forgiven on Schedule E.

The off-setting contribution (so as not to artificially deflate cash-on-hand) must be manually entered on Schedule A.

3. The CFS will no longer automatically create off-setting “other receipts” on Schedule C for loans of a candidate’s personal funds to the candidate’s committee that are forgiven on Schedule D.

The off-setting “other receipt” (so as not to artificially deflate cash-on-hand) must be manually entered on Schedule C.

ADDING NEW REPORTING PERIOD

Candidate and Noncandidate Committees, you must add the Supplemental Report due on February 2, 2009, to your reporting schedule as follows or you will not be able to file this report:

1. Log-on to the CFS or NCFS with your Administrator username and password;

2. Click “Administration”, then click “Reporting Schedules”;

3. Click the “Add New” link;

4. Select “2008-2010” from the “Election Period” drop-down, then the applicable reporting schedule from the “Reporting Schedule” drop-down, and then click the Search button;

5. Click on the “Add” link next to “Supplemental” with your applicable reporting period.

UPDATED REPORTING SCHEDULES

Please visit the Commission’s website at www.hawaii.gov/campaign to access the updated reporting schedules.  The website provides a wealth of information and is constantly updated.  Please check it regularly.