SF 33 resulted from interim work intended to clean up Wyoming’s election laws and make ballot access easier for minority parties.

However, the benign SF 33 that came out of the Senate became controversial during the last week of the session because of amendments added in the House.

Rep. Bruce Hinchey (R-H36, Casper) brought an amendment to allow political parties to accept money directly from corporations or organizations for "multi-state or national political party conferences or conventions."

A political party receiving such funds must then file an itemized statement of receipts and expenditures with the Secretary of State within 10 days after the conference or convention.

Because no provisions were made for disposition of excess funds acquired for these conventions and conferences, or prohibiting the use of these funds for promotion of candidates at these events, the amendment opened a loophole for direct corporate or organizational contributions to political campaigns - a major step backward in campaign finance reform.

On a voice vote, the House defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Louise Ryckman (D-H60, Green River) requiring political parties to donate any direct corporate or organizational contributions not spent on multi-state conferences or conventions to a charitable cause within 10 days of the event, and to show the donation on the report to the Secretary of State.

Proponents of the proposal to allow direct corporate or organizational contributions argued that Wyoming and the West are often overlooked and forgotten by national candidates. They said that holding conventions and conferences in the West would help sensitize those candidates to issues facing this region.

Opponents said the amendment would open the floodgates to "soft money" by circumventing the current prohibitions against corporations and organizations giving directly to political campaigns.

Opponents also argued that this was a last-minute partisan measure that should be kept out of the Election Code, because it was drafted specifically to benefit an eight-state Western Leadership Conference planned by the Wyoming Republican Party for September 1999 in Jackson.

Although the other election law revisions in SF 33 would not become effective until Jan. 1, 1999, the revision allowing direct contributions would become effective immediately.

House rules do not require roll call votes on amendments, although they may be taken at certain points in the process if requested by a member. Requests are rare, however, because some members vote punitively. Consequently - and unfortunately for voters seeking accountability from their representatives - no roll call votes were taken on the amendments described above.

Another amendment to SF 33 offered by Reps. Eli Bebout (R-H55, Riverton), Hinchey, and Bruce Burns (R-H51, Sheridan), required employers to obtain written permission from employees every calendar year before accepting a payroll deduction or reverse checkoff for contributions to a political action committee.

This idea appeared earlier in the session as HB 162, which failed introduction. The arguments for and against the payroll deduction amendment were the same as for HB 162 (described above).

An attempt by Rep. Mike Massie (D-H13, Laramie) to delete the payroll deduction amendment failed on a 23-36 (1 excused) vote.