Disclosure
The Transparency in Political Spending Act (TiPS)
Senate bill 2569
House bill 7859
TiPS would strengthen disclosure and disclaimer requirements on independent expenditures designed to influence Rhode Island elections. By shedding light on where groups’ money is coming from, Rhode Island voters would be empowered to make informed decisions on election day.
February 16, 2012- Governor Lincoln Chafee, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed, House Speaker Gordon Fox, and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere joined Senator Juan Pichardo and Representative Chris Blazejewski, as well as Common Cause RI Executive Director John Marion, in introducing the Transparency in Political Spending Act of 2012.
June 5, 2012- the current House version of the bill was passed 57 to 13. According to the Providence Journal, the bill was amended in committee to exclude 501(c)3′s, which are subject to separate regulations, and to raise the limit for disclosure to $1000. The original bill can be found here. We hope the Senate will quickly pass Transparency in Political Spending.
As Senate President Paiva-Weed said at the press conference, “Voters have a right to know who is paying to deliver the messages attempting to influence their decisions at that ballot box. Campaign finance disclosure is absolutely vital to the health of our representative democracy.”
UPDATE: Governor Chafee has signed TIPS! Read more at GoLocalProv or the Republic Report.
Press
Here is the press release from the governor’s office, and check out our media coverage below:
- “Lawmakers take on SuperPACs on Smith Hill,” GoLocalProv
- “RI governor, legislators back more campaign dollar disclosure,” Providence Journal
- “Q&A: New push to beef up SuperPAC disclosure rules in RI,” WPRI Blog
- “RI Gov. wants more campaign finance disclosure,” Boston Globe
- “State leaders back full campaign finance disclosure,” WPRO
- “RI’s DISCLOSE bill introduced,” RIFuture
- “Bill will improve campaign finance laws,” Woonsocket Call
- “Chafee eyes regs for political expenditures,” Providence Business News
- “They’ve got plenty to blog about,” Providence Journal
- “House passes legislation that would beef up reporting rules,” Providence Journal
- “Unholy alliance? Church, ACLU, unions fighting disclosure bill,” WPRI
Updates
March 6th- Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
Support
- John Marion, Common Cause RI
- Democracy Matters
- Brown Democrats
Opposition
- ACLU
- RI Right to Life
April 3rd- House Judiciary Committee hearing
Support
- Progressive Democrats of RI
- John Marion, Common Cause RI
- Mr. Smiley, small business owner
- Democracy Matters
- Brian Daniels, Governor Chafee’s office
Opposition
- RI Tea Party
- RI Right to Life
- Operation Clean Government
- ACLU
- RI Land Trust Council
- David Carlin, RI Chamber of Commerce Coalition
- Laura McChlauchlin, RI Tea Party Coalition
- Mike Rollins, Libertarian Party
- Ms. DelPico, Association of Fundraising Professionals
The main arguments made against TIPS were that additional reporting would be an “onerous” burden for small organizations, and that disclosure would create a “chilling effect” on their speech as it would discourage donations.