Attending a meeting of the House Committee on Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform I listened to two bills (among others) being discussed and couldn't help but be struck by the hypocrisy in the reasons given for passing these bills. HB 120 - Public Municipal Campaigns and House Bill 76 – School Board Candidate Filing Fee.
In the case of the HB 76 the argument was that there was TOO MUCH LOCAL CONTROL in fees for filing and that in some cases the fee was TOO LOW and would allow people to file who were not serious candidates. Later when arguing for HB 120 the argument was given that this bill allowed FOR LOCAL CONTROL and how important local control was. The argument was also given that public financing would allow MORE people to run for office.
What we had was the same legislator (a primary sponsors of both bills) arguing in one bill for taking away local control and discouraging people from running for office and within minutes arguing for local control and wanting more people to run for office in another bill.
The hypocrisy makes my head want to explode. Of course it is just another day in the General Assembly as legislators spend money and reduce freedoms.
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