The Colorado House of Representatives Monday toughened a proposed ban on office-account gifts – a move some predicted would ultimately kill the legislation.
The amendment – offered by one of the bill’s chief foes, Republican Rep. Mark Larson of Cortez – would also prohibit elected officials from being paid to give speeches. That would hurt some lawmakers more than others and could cause Gov. Bill Owens to veto the measure.
In his 2005 honoraria report, the governor, who is paid $90,000 a year for his official duties, reported earning an extra $35,500 for four speaking engagements.
While some politicians are paid for speeches they give to private groups, others, like Rep. Richard Decker, R-Fountain, can’t give their talk away.
“I don’t get that many invitations to speak for free,” Decker joked during the debate.
The House approved the amended version of Senate Bill 51 on a 49-15 vote and sent it back to the Senate, which passed a different version earlier.
Backers of the bill said the amendment could hurt its chances of becoming law.
“The concern is that this is a poison-pill amendment,” said Pete Maysmith of the public interest group Colorado Common Cause. “We obviously support efforts to restrict honoraria. The concern is that this is not the vehicle to do that.”
The bill stirred controversy in the House among rural legislators who claimed that it unfairly targeted them by eliminating private donations to “office accounts.”
Rural lawmakers often represent districts that include multiple counties and towns and cover hundreds of miles.
Backers of the measure said the office accounts are a way for elected officials to skirt the state’s tough campaign-finance laws, which limit the individual donations to $400 per election cycle and require politicians to show how they spent the money.
Politicians with office accounts can accept unlimited amounts of money from private donors – even special interests with pending bills. Those politicians also don’t have to explain how they spend the money.
Larson referred to the bill as “the Chicken Little bill of the year” because it highlights a problem that he says doesn’t exist. Bill sponsor Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, worried that the amendment would waylay efforts to eliminate a loophole in campaign finance laws.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
