Legislators ponder accepting free fundraiser tickets
From the Honolulu Star-Advertiser
After hearing strong opposition, the House Judiciary Committee on March 22 delayed a decision on a bill to allow state employees, including lawmakers, to accept free tickets to nonprofit fundraisers and even foreign junkets without restrictions.
"I think I need a little more time to work on the language after hearing some of the comments," committee Chairman Gil Keith-Agaran said after the hearing on Senate Bill 671 HD 1. The committee put off decision-making until March 31.
The bill would dramatically alter Hawaii's ethics law, which prohibits state employees from accepting any gift that can reasonably be inferred as intended to influence or reward them in the performance of their duties. It would create exemptions allowing them to accept free fundraiser tickets from nonprofit organizations, including chambers of commerce and labor unions, as well trips sponsored by other governments. They would have to report such gifts annually, but no limit would be imposed on the value of the gift.
Aloha United Way, the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations and other charitable nonprofits filed comments on the bill. They said that inviting legislators to nonprofit events helps educate lawmakers about their charitable missions, needs and efforts. However, the Ethics Commission, Common Cause Hawaii, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii and others opposed the bill as far too sweeping.
The move to open up the gift law came after the Ethics Commission recently advised legislators that they could not accept $200 tickets as gifts from lobbyists to attend the Hawaii Institute of Public Affairs dinner. Bill Kaneko, the institute's president, said only three legislators attended this year's fundraising dinner, compared with more than 40 last year.
