Gov. Rick Scott must now sign or veto a bill which aims to eliminate murky political committees while increasing the amounts of money candidates could raise from individual donors.
The campaign finance bill, HB 569, was sent to Scott on Wednesday, after the measure passed the House by a 79-34 vote. The Senate unanimously passed the bill in a 37-0 vote.
The bill gets rid of the controversial “committees of continuous existence,” or CCE’s and provides for the creation of new political committees that can accept unlimited amounts of campaign contributions. It also which raises the limits on individual contributions significantly from the current $500 to $3,000 for statewide candidates and $1,000 for everyone else.
Meanwhile, ethics bill SB 2, imposes new rules on conflicts of interest, increases the ability for the Ethics Commission to collect fines that are owed, bars legislators from leaving office and going to work as Tallahassee lobbyists, loosens rules on financial disclosure deadlines, and opens the door to legislators who want to shield their assets in a blind trust. The House approved the measure 117-0, and the Senate approved it 37-0.
Reacting to the campaign finance and ethics bills, the League of Women Voters of Florida President Deirdre Macnab said, passage of SB 2 represented “the most significant effort at ethics reform in 37 years in Florida.”
Meanwhile, Macnab expressed disappointment over the campaign finance bill noting that, while there are some important provisions in it, “raising the limits on campaign contributions not only reduces the likelihood of contributions from ordinary Florida voters, [but] it also has been shown to reduce voter turnout, something that Florida can ill afford.”
The League added: “Components of this bill include a six-fold increase in amount of money that statewide candidates can accept from individuals and corporations, and a two-fold increase for other candidates. This is not only unnecessary in light of the staggering amount of money that already floods our political process, but it also drowns out the voices of average citizens. The League echoes the sentiments of Governor Scott on this issue, who stated, ‘No one has shown me a rationale for raising these limits, so I don’t know why we would be doing it.'”
Scott has seven days on which to act before the session ends on May 3.
