HJR 91 -- Campaign Contribution Limits

Sponsor:  Bringer

Upon voter approval, this proposed constitutional amendment
changes the laws regarding campaign contributions to candidates
and committees.  In its main provisions, the resolution:

(1)  Limits campaign contributions from any person other than the
candidate in any one election to candidates for statewide office
at $1,275; for state senator at $650; and for state
representative at $325.  Limits for local candidate contributions
are based on population and are specified in the resolution.
Candidate committees will be exempt from these limits;

(2)  Limits contributions made or accepted by political party
committees in any one election to $10,000 for a statewide
candidate; $5,000 for a state senator candidate; $2,500 for a
state representative candidate; and 10 times the allowable
individual contribution for candidates for other local offices.
The amount of contributions that may be made by or accepted from
a political party committee in the primary election when a
candidate is unopposed will be 50% of the amounts;

(3)  Requires contributions from children younger than 14 years
of age to be counted equally toward their parents' contribution
limits or, in the case of a single parent, counted fully against
that parent's contribution;

(4)  Establishes a surcharge penalty payable to the Missouri
Ethics Commission of $1,000 plus the amount of the nonallowable
contribution for a violation of the campaign contribution limits
by any committee and requires the candidate to return the
nonallowable contributions to the contributor within 10 business
days;

(5)  Requires funds received and expended before January 1, 2011,
to be reported as a separate account and allows the use of those
funds based on the current laws; and

(6)  Prohibits a committee from transferring any funds received
by the committee to any other committee as specified in Chapter
130, RSMo.  Any person who violates this provision will be
notified by the commission within five days of determining that
the transfer is prohibited and the person must notify the
committee to which the funds were transferred that they must be
returned within 10 days.  For a second violation, the person
transferring the funds will be guilty of a class C misdemeanor
and a class D felony for any subsequent violation.  The
prohibition will not apply to any transfer of funds from a
committee to a candidate committee unless the intent is to
conceal the identity of the actual source of the funds.  Any
person who transfers or attempts to transfer funds from a
committee to any other committee with the intent to conceal the
identity of the source of funds will be guilty of a class D
felony.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated September 14, 2010 at 3:14 pm