Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney is less than enthusiastic about the resolution passed by the Idaho Republican Party central committee at its meeting last weekend calling for relaxing financial disclosure requirements for political committees or PACs by exempting them from reporting or itemizing the sources of contributions of less than $200; the current reporting threshold is $50. Denney, who didn’t attend the meeting and first saw a copy of the resolution on Monday morning, said, “If they ask my advice, I would say leave it alone.” He said, “I’d like to see more transparency. I’d like to know where all the money comes from.”

The party’s resolution was a bit unclear, in making its case that Idaho’s Sunshine Law is out of date and the $50 threshold should be raised because the 1974 law is based on “figures generated over 30 years ago.” It refers to the Sunshine Law’s entire definitions section, which covers all entities required to report under the law; the $50 reporting threshold, which under the current law applies to donations to “a candidate or political committee;” and the “contents of reports” section of the law, which applies to candidates or political committees. The same $50 threshold applies to candidates’ campaigns and political committees or PACs, which may be groups backing candidates or measures, or political party committees engaged in campaigning. If the sections of state law the resolution cites were changed, it would affect not only party committees, but all PACs and all candidates' campaigns.

But the wording of the resolution appears to be expressing concerns about burdens being too great on “volunteer treasurers,” and makes reference to “counties, districts and regional committees,” suggesting it may be motivated by concern over political party committees. In addition to raising the reporting threshold for donations from $50 to $200, the resolution calls for raising the reporting threshold for expenditures from $25 to $100; and exempting party committees from falling under the reporting law at all if they raise less than $20,000 in a year; that figure currently is $5,000.

Denney said volunteer treasurers already have to keep track of all donations, no matter their size, in case, for example, someone gives $40 and then later gives the same amount several more times within the same year – thus exceeding reporting thresholds. So eliminating the reporting requirement wouldn’t save those treasurers any work, he said.

“As far as transparency, I don’t think it needs to be raised – I think $50 is OK,” Denney said. “I don’t think it’s that big a deal for people to report.”