STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2453

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2146
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
2146 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is:

     (1)  To require candidates for the Senate and House of
          Representatives to electronically file campaign
          reports;

     (2)  To raise the fine that may be assessed on a corporation
          for a violation of campaign finance laws to as much as
          three times the amount of the illegal contribution (the
          same as for an individual person); and

     (3)  To make a pattern of knowing or intentional violations
          of campaign finance laws a class C felony.

     Your Committee finds that candidates for other state
elective offices are presently required to file electronically,
and requiring electronic filing by candidates for the state
legislature will enhance public access to candidate reports.
Your Committee further finds that increasing the potential
penalty against a corporation for an illegal campaign
contribution to be the same as the potential fine against an
individual will create more consistency in campaign law
enforcement.  Your Committee notes that, in the event of illegal

 
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contributions by a corporation, fines may also be levied
individually against corporate directors, officers, or agents who
knowingly authorized the illegal acts.  Thus, raising the
potential penalty against the corporation itself may expose
corporations and those associated with them to greater liability,
in the aggregate, for a single illegal contribution.

     However, your Committee believes it is appropriate to give
the Campaign Spending Commission the flexibility to focus
enforcement efforts on a corporate entity, corporate officers or
directors, or both, depending on the situation.  Your Committee
agrees that particularly egregious violations of campaign
spending laws should be classed as a more serious offense than
garden variety violations.  Your Committee further agrees that
multiple violations that are part of a pattern intended to
conceal misuse or hiding of campaign funds should be considered
felonious at a class C level.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the
Campaign Spending Commission.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by:

     (1)  Specifying that the class C felony for repeated
          violations that are part of a pattern of concealment
          applies only when the repeated violations were intended
          to conceal misuse or concealment of campaign funds; and

     (2)  Making technical, non-substantive changes for the
          purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
2146, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2146, S.D. 1, and
be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.


 
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                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary,



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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