Legislation that would grant local officials amnesty from four years’ worth of outstanding ethics fines is headed to Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk.
The House voted 141-20 to give final approval to House Bill 370. The bill would wipe the slate clean for thousands of county commissioners, mayors, school board members and other local officials who did not file campaign finance reports from 2010-2014, as long as they make amends by filing those missing reports by Dec. 31.
The legislation represents a compromise hammered out in committee between the state ethics commission and the lobbyists for the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia. The commission’s database of late filers currently has about 27,000 entries, most of which represent missing local reports.
The commission’s computer system for years was overwhelmed and many of those local officials who were fined claimed they field on time but the commission’s system didn’t work properly.
No longer in the bill, however, was a provision Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, wanted that would have required politically active groups to disclose how they raise and spend money.
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