STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2124

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2508

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2508 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN REPORTING LAWS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the filing deadlines for preliminary and supplemental campaign spending reports to align with existing law or present practice.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission and Common Cause Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that the date of the primary election was advanced from the last Saturday in September to the second Saturday in August.  This measure changes the existing statutory deadline for filing a candidate's first preliminary campaign spending report from July 31 of an election year to thirty calendar days prior to a primary election to avoid back-to-back filing deadlines of July 31 and August 1, for the first and second preliminary primary campaign spending reports, respectively, and to align accordingly with the August primary election date.

     Your Committee further finds that every candidate files a supplemental campaign spending report on January 31 of every year; not only after an election year, as stated under existing law.  Thus, clarifying that these reports are due every year will align the statutory deadline with present practice.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2508, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2508, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair