Utah bills homing in on campaign finance

Allen said she couldn't say for sure that some candidates or PACs are purposely filing incomplete reports, only to come back later after the primary or general election to file amendments.

"You can hide donations by amending (your report) afterwards and still call yourself honest," said Allen. "For transparency reasons, the public needs to know (your campaign finances) in a timely manner."

Allen was a leader in the anti-voucher fight this past year. Her private job is running the Davis School District's nonprofit foundation.

She said that while she looked at only "a few" reports following recent elections, she still could see problems. One legislative candidate had 39 individual amendments to his report totalling $14,000 and another had seven amendments totalling $7,000.

"Anyone can make a mathematical mistake," but it is hard to believe that someone could accidentally make a $14,000 mistake, she said.

Accordingly, Allen wants to impose a series of fines which increase as the amounts of the "errors" grow.

An offender should pay a $1,000 fine if he files his report late (not all late reports carry the ballot-banning penalty now, only final reports carry the ballot provision). In addition, for each subsequent day the report is late, it brings another $50 fine.

Allen would also like to see a $25 fine for each amendment that is 5 percent or more of the amended report's amount. Thus the 14 amendments could cost that candidate $975. If you had raised $10,000 on your report but had a $10 amendment, no action. But if you had a $1,000 amendment, then the fines would kick in.

---

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com