Legislature(2003 - 2004)
05/08/2003 08:07 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 149-LOBBYING BY NONPROFITS CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 149, "An Act requiring nonprofit corporations under the Alaska Net Income Tax Act to provide prior public notice of lobbying expenditures and an annual report of lobbying expenditures to the Department of Revenue; providing for a civil penalty for failure to provide the notice; and providing for an effective date." [Before the committee is Version 23-LS0354\H, which had been amended at the previous meeting. Although this document is entitled and referred to as a sponsor substitute, it was not officially such and thus the document only exists in the committee packet.] CHAIR WEYHRAUCH reminded the committee that at the last hearing Mr. Briggs with the Disability Law Center of Alaska had offered an amendment for the committee to consider. Number 2648 REPRESENTATIVE KELLY WOLF, Alaska State Legislature, spoke as the sponsor of HB 149. With regard to the amendment proposed at the previous hearing, Representative Wolf related that the amendment would [achieve the intent of the legislation] save one matter. Therefore, he suggested an amendment to Mr. Briggs' amendment such that the change of "$500" to "$2,000" on page 2, line 1, would not be changed and thus the amount would remain at "$500". Representative Wolf explained that Mr. Briggs' amendment would still result in [the requirement] for lobbying efforts of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to be published in a newspaper. Furthermore, these organizations would still provide disclosure for their contributors. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH clarified that at the prior hearing two amendments to Version H were adopted. Now, Mr. Briggs' amendment, Amendment 3, is before the committee. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG surmised that Representative Wolf had no problem with the first page of Amendment 3. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF replied no. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH clarified that Amendment 3 is the handwritten amendment. Number 2792 REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved that the committee adopt the first page of Amendment 3, which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: At page 1, line 2: Delete "public" At page 1, lines 2-3: Delete "and an annual report of lobbying expenditure to the Department of Revenue" At page 1, line 8: Delete ", annual report" At page 1, line 9: Delete "public" At page 1, lines 11-13: Delete "a copy of the newspaper's certificate of publication with a copy of the notice published and the dates of publication within seven days after the last publication of the notice" and Insert "written evidence of satisfaction of this section." At page 1, line 13: Delete "public" There being no objection, it was so ordered. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved that the committee adopt the first item [on the second page] of Amendment 3, which read: At page 1, lines 13-14: Delete "is required to" and "publication" CHAIR WEYHRAUCH said he didn't believe there is any objection to that. [Therefore, the above amendment to Amendment 3 was treated as adopted.] REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG asked if Representative Wolf would be willing to change the "$500" to "$1,000". TAPE 03-57, SIDE B Number 2979 REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG related that he is trying to make this reasonable from the nonprofits' point of view. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF said that the last thing he wants to do is inhibit 501(3)(c) [nonprofits], and therefore he announced that he would accept "$1,000" as a friendly amendment. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG offered an amendment [to the second item on page 2 of Amendment 3], which would change the "$500" to "$1,000" rather than "$2,000". Therefore, it would read as follows: Page 2, line 1, Delete "$500" Insert "$1,000" There being no objection, it was so ordered. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG offered the remainder of page 2 [of Amendment 3], which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: At page 2, line 4; after "specificity, the" Insert "lobbying" At page 2, lines 4-5: Delete "proposed, the proposed budget, the location, and the time period in which the lobbying activity has occurred or will occur;" Insert "conducted, that has been either" At page 2, line 6: Delete "(2) of the notice" Insert "(i) published" At page 2, lines 6-7: Delete "; (3)" REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG then directed attention to the following portion of the remainder of page 2 of Amendment 3: Page 2, lines 4-5: Delete "proposed, the proposed budget, the location, and time period in which the lobbying activity has occurred or will occur;" Insert "conducted, that has been either" REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said that the language being inserted doesn't make sense in the sentence. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF pointed out that it would read "that has been either published not fewer than [two] times in eight days". REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said that he had no objection to that, but he asked if Representative Wolf would accept changing the language to refer to once in eight days. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF noted his agreement to once in eight days. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved that the committee adopt another amendment [to Amendment 3, which replaces the portion of page 2 of Amendment 3 that refers to page 2, lines 4-5], as follows: Page 2, lines 4-6: Delete "proposed, the proposed budget, the location, and time period in which the lobbying activity has occurred or will occur; (2) of the notice not fewer than two times in eight days;" Insert "the lobbying activity that has been published" There being no objection, the above amendment [to Amendment 3] was adopted. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that HB 149 would be set aside. [HB 149 was taken up later in this meeting.] HB 149-LOBBYING BY NONPROFITS CHAIR WEYHRAUCH returned to HOUSE BILL NO. 149, "An Act requiring nonprofit corporations under the Alaska Net Income Tax Act to provide prior public notice of lobbying expenditures and an annual report of lobbying expenditures to the Department of Revenue; providing for a civil penalty for failure to provide the notice; and providing for an effective date." CHAIR WEYHRAUCH reminded the committee that it was going through the handwritten Amendment 3 earlier in the meeting when the committee left off on page 3 of Amendment 3. He asked if Representative Wolf is amenable to page 3 and page 4 of Amendment 3, which read [original punctuation provided]: At page 2, line 10: Delete "and" Insert "(ii) delivered by mail or electronic means to the members of the corporation or, if the corporation is not a membership organization, to its board of directors (2) for lobbying expenditures incurred between January 1 and June 30 of a calendar year, the notice provided under subsection (1) shall be published or delivered no less than thirty (30) days after July 1 of the same calendar year. For lobbying expenditures incurred between July 1 and December 31 of a calendar year, the notice provided under subsection (1) shall be published or delivered no less than thirty (30) days after January 1 of the succeeding calendar year. (3) Each corporation subject to this Act shall maintain in its corporate headquarters a true and correct copy of each notice provided under subsection (1) for a period of not less than two calendar years after publication or delivery. At page 2, lines 17-23: Delete all. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF replied yes. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH clarified that Amendment 3 [in its entirety] is before the committee. He recalled that it had been moved. He expressed interest in adopting Amendment 3 and incorporating it into a committee substitute (CS) so that the committee can have a clean version with all the changes. Number 0200 REPRESENTATIVE DAHLSTROM informed the committee that she and Representative Wolf had a conversation regarding her proposed conceptual amendment to change the yearly gross revenue to at least $10 million. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF said that [$10 million] is an excessive amount. In response to Representative Dahlstrom, Representative Wolf announced that he was comfortable with revenues of $1 million. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH asked if there was any objection to Amendment 3 as amended. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON objected. He directed attention to page 3 of Amendment 3 and commented that sub-subparagraph (ii) is an expensive requirement to which he is opposed. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF pointed out that sub-subparagraph (ii) specifies that information can be "delivered by mail or electronic means". REPRESENTATIVE SEATON related his belief that this is excessive interference with a 501(c)(3) for a purpose that he hasn't been able to define yet. Representative Seaton announced his opposition to [Amendment 3 as amended]. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF specified that his biggest concern with this matter is the public's trust with regard to disclosure of 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Number 0535 CHAIR WEYHRAUCH noted that one of the biggest questions about this legislation is whether this is already covered by federal law. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF explained that the IRS has a mandate to manage 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to maintain insubstantial lobbying efforts. The IRS has openly stated that it doesn't have the means or the time to police 850,000 nonprofits nationwide. This legislation would merely return the public's trust in the 501(c)(3) nonprofits in Alaska. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH said that he hasn't heard of any problem in this arena at the state level. He asked, "Is there an issue that this bill is in search of?" REPRESENTATIVE WOLF answered that nonprofit organizations step into Alaska on the issue of predator control. He charged that such nonprofits enter Alaska and line their accounts with soft money [under the guise] of killing wolves. The intent with this legislation is to implement something that when a local resident makes a contribution to a nonprofit, there will be an attempt [made by the nonprofit] to relate to the contributor where the contributions were used. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN asked if this would include those groups lobbying against the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). REPRESENTATIVE WOLF replied yes, if those groups are lobbying. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH, upon reviewing the third page of Amendment 3, said that he had a problem with it because its burdensome. REPRESENTATIVE WOLF related that he has no problem with the deletion of page 3 of Amendment 3 if that's the committee's wish. Number 0968 CHAIR WEYHRAUCH asked if there is objection to removing page three of Amendment 3. There being no objection, it was so ordered. REPRESENTATIVE DAHLSTROM moved that the committee adopt the following amendment [Amendment 4]: Page 1, line 9, after "501(c)(3)" Insert ", which has yearly gross revenues of at least $1 million," There being no objection, [Amendment 4] was adopted. CHAIR WEYHRAUCH announced that there's a motion to adopt Amendment 3 as amended, as follows: At page 1, line 2: Delete "public" At page 1, lines 2-3: Delete "and an annual report of lobbying expenditure to the Department of Revenue" At page 1, line 8: Delete ", annual report" At page 1, line 9: Delete "public" At page 1, lines 11-13: Delete "a copy of the newspaper's certificate of publication with a copy of the notice published and the dates of publication within seven days after the last publication of the notice" and Insert "written evidence of satisfaction of this section." At page 1, line 13: Delete "public" At page 1, lines 13-14: Delete "is required to" and "publication" Page 2, line 1, Delete "$500" Insert "$1,000" At page 2, line 4; after "specificity, the" Insert "lobbying" Page 2, lines 4-6: Delete "proposed, the proposed budget, the location, and time period in which the lobbying activity has occurred or will occur; (2) of the notice not fewer than two times in eight days;" Insert "the lobbying activity that has been published" At page 2, line 6: Delete "(2) of the notice" Insert "(i) published" At page 2, lines 6-7: Delete "; (3)" At page 2, lines 17-23: Delete all. There being no objection, Amendment 3, as amended, was adopted. [HB 149 was held over.]
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