Accluntability Blueprint

The Foundation of Democracy

CONTENTS

Accessible and Accountable Government

The Foundation of Democracy

Clean Money Campaign Reform

Initiative and Referendum

Complete Lobbyist Reporting

Government that Works for You

      Determination of conflicts of interest is made more difficult because state legislators in Wyoming are required to reveal only limited information on financial interests that may constitute a conflict of interest.

      What can be done?
      Comprehensive ethics legislation would require:

amending the disclosure provisions in W.S. 9-13-108 to provide meaningful financial disclosure by Wyoming's five statewide elected officials and legislators;
amending the conflict of interest provisions in W.S. 9-13-106(a) to conform to the Wyoming Constitution;
adding a new section to Wyoming Statute Title 9, Chapter 13, Article 1 providing the Secretary of State with authority to enforce Wyoming's ethics law.

Campaign Finance Reform Report campaign contributions before an election
      Wyoming already requires complete disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures. Unfortunately, all the disclosure takes place 10 days following an election. Wyoming voters have the right to know who is financing a candidate or ballot measure prior to casting their votes.
      What can be done?
      Wyoming's campaign finance reporting law should be amended to require any candidate or ballot measure campaign spending more than $5,000 to file a preliminary campaign contribution & expenditure report 10 days prior to the election, followed by the final report 10 days following the election.

Close Wyoming's campaign finance loophole
      Normally, only candidates, their immediate families, other individuals, and political action committees can contribute to campaigns or political parties. Corporations, unions, and other organizations cannot contribute directly; they must contribute through political action committees, which in turn are required to publicly report the contributions they receive and the expenditures they make.
      A campaign contribution loophole enacted by the Legislature in 1998 allows corporations, unions, or other organizations to contribute directly to a political party for the purpose of "supporting multistate or national political party conferences or conventions." Although the statute requires reporting of the contributions and how they are spent, there are no provisions governing the use of leftover funds to prevent these funds from being channeled to other purposes.
      What can be done?
      The campaign contribution loophole, W.S. 22-25-102(g), should be either repealed, or amended to direct any excess funds from political party issue conferences to Wyoming's General Fund.

File campaign contribution and expenditure reports electronically
      The Secretary of State's office has made steady progress toward making information and forms available to the public via its website. However, the data in campaign contribution and expenditure reports is still submitted on paper, even though many candidates and campaigns obviously keep their financial data in an electronic format that could then be posted on the Secretary of State's website.
      What can be done?
      The reporting requirements should be amended to allow electronic filing of campaign contribution and expenditure data, with a future deadline for requiring information to be submitted electronically.

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