Missouri Senate

Introduced

The act imposes a one year cooling off period before members of the General Assembly may act as paid political consultants and a 3 year cooling off period before they may become lobbyists. Members are also barred from lobbying local government officials while serving in the General Assembly. Members may lobby for religious and charitable associations immediately upon leaving office, but only without compensation.

The act imposes a one year cooling off period before paid, full-time employees of General Assembly members may act as lobbyists.

The Governor is required to submit a list of political contributions that any potential appointee has made to the Governor to the Senate within 10 days of submitting a commission letter to the Secretary of State for the appointment of the person.

All expenditures, with the exception of commemorative items, plaques, and awards, made by lobbyists on behalf of members of the General Assembly shall be reimbursed by the member within 30 days from the day the expenditure is reported by the lobbyist. Members shall file a reimbursement report with the Ethics Commission within 10 days of the reimbursement. Lobbyists are required to report reimbursements in their monthly expenditure reports.

Paid political consultants are required to register annually with the Ethics Commission. Consultants shall divulge employees, client lists, and whether such clients are lobbyists and update the filing when any changes are made. Paid political consultants are barred from lobbying while acting as consultants and for 6 months after ceasing to consult. Similarly, lobbyists are barred from acting as a paid political consultant while acting as lobbyists and for 6 months after ceasing to lobby.

Currently, individuals are not required to register as lobbyists if influencing legislation is not the primary purpose of their employment or if they lobby on an occasional basis. The act removes these exceptions so that all individuals who act in the ordinary course of their employment to influence legislation on behalf of or for the benefit of their employer are required to register.

The act removes a provision from current law that allows lobbyists to report an entire group for the purposes of expenditures.

Paid, full-time employees of statewide elected officials who work to develop or influence the passage or defeat of legislation and paid, full-time employees of General Assembly members are required to file financial interest statements.

Under current law, elected officials in political subdivisions with an annual operating budget in excess of one million dollars or in political subdivisions where ordinances have been passed requiring alternative disclosures are exempt from filing financial interest statements. The act removes these exceptions and requires all elected officials in all political subdivisions to file the same financial interest statement as legislative and statewide elected officials.

Filers are required to disclose the name, address and general nature of the business conducted of each limited liability company in which the person has an interest on their financial interest statements.

Members of the General Assembly; statewide elected officials; paid, full-time employees of statewide elected officials who work to develop or influence the passage or defeat of legislation and paid; and full-time employees of General Assembly members are required to disclose income received by or payments made to such employee in connection with any political campaign and from any business entity or organization outside of employment that pays $1,000 or more each year.

The act changes the filing deadline for financial interest statements from May 1 to January 31 and requires an extra filing of a financial interest statement for legislators, statewide elected officials and their employees that are required to file, to be filed by June 30, covering January 1 to May 31.

Members of the General Assembly who vacate their office for an appointment on a board or commission, shall not receive compensation until their term expires.

Gubernatorial appointees are barred from making political contributions to the Governor.

Persons are prohibited from charging interest on loans made to political committees at a rate higher than the 90 day treasury bill rate.

The act requires a detailed description and nature of in-kind contributions to be included in campaign finance disclosure reports.

CHRIS HOGERTY