Group refuses to ID its donors

The new corporation that gave $170,000 to Utahns for a Better Tomorrow's efforts to pass Amendment 3 is refusing to disclose its funding sources, saying it will follow federal and state election laws.

"We do not currently intend to release our donor list to the media or otherwise make the list public," said Neal Blair, a trustee of Marriage Education Initiatives. His comments were in an e-mail sent Friday.

Amy Naccarato, director of the Utah Elections Office, said it appears that Marriage Education Initiatives may have found a legal loophole, since corporations don't have to report their funding sources, as do political entities such as political action committees or political issue committees.

"It's something new that I don't think our law is ready to address," Naccarato said of corporations such as Marriage Education Initiatives. "It's something we may have to ask the Legislature to help us address in the future."

Blair's corporation made two donations — $120,000 in cash, and $50,000 in kind — to UBT, which supports Amendment 3. The issue will be on Tuesday's ballot, and would alter the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and any other domestic union that is the same or substantially similar to marriage.

The contributions to UBT are the only two listed on a campaign finance report Marriage Education Initiatives filed Friday with the Utah Elections Office. The donations are both listed on Oct. 18, the same day the educational nonprofit corporation incorporated.

Efforts to pass the state ban on same-sex marriage had raised a combined $16,480 as of Sept. 15. By Tuesday's reporting deadline, that had risen to $447,500. The Don't Amend Alliance has garnered $704,400 in its efforts to fight Amendment 3.

Blair is a contact on the donation link of UBT's Web site, www.utahamendment3.com, but the campaign's spokeswoman, Nancy Pomeroy, continues to claim no knowledge of the corporation, calling questions about it "much ado about nothing.

"All the information that needs to be disclosed has been disclosed," Pomeroy said.

The corporation, which had earlier reported an incorrect address, was listed Friday at Blair's downtown apartment.

Scott McCoy, head of Don't Amend, sees the situation as ironic, since supporters have accused his campaign of being funded largely by out-of-state special interests. Tuesday's finance reports revealed Orem philanthropist Bruce Bastian remains the largest contributor to Don't Amend, and most of that campaign's funding has come from in-state sources.

"I'm dumbfounded that you have no idea where that money came from," McCoy said Friday in a debate with amendment supporters. "Aren't you curious?"