House committee approves Billig’s campaign disclosure bill

OLYMPIA – Two measures that attempt to stem the growing influence of money in politics and increase donor transparency received a public hearing today in the state House of Representatives.  House Bills 2499 and 2500, both sponsored by Rep. Andy Billig (D – Spokane), were heard before the State Government and Tribal Affairs committee.

“Both of these bills help to prevent our initiative process from being hijacked by whoever happens to have the deepest pockets,” Billig said.  “Ballot measures are a valuable tool for citizens to pass laws, and these bills will help return the initiative process to the people.”

Billig’s House Bill 2499 would require political advertising that supports or opposes a ballot measure and is sponsored by a political committee to disclose the top five contributors to the measure in the advertisement itself.  It applies to advertising costing $1000 or more.  This would increase transparency to the public about who is financially backing a measure, or who is spending money to defeat it.

House Bill 2500 would apply limits to the amount of money that could be contributed by donors to support or oppose a ballot measure.  Contributions could not exceed $1600 in aggregate each calendar year.

While Billig’s disclosure measure advanced one step closer to a House floor vote today, the proposal to limit contributions did not make it out of the committee ahead of the deadline for House policy bills to move forward.

“If we’re going to truly return the initiative process to the people, there will need to be some reforms,” Billig said.  “But that will have to be a conversation for another day.  Today, we scored a victory for public disclosure, and making sure that people are informed about the source of funding in ballot measure campaigns. An informed voter is the best kind of voter.”