BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The Louisiana Legislature has agreed to delay the start of a new law requiring outside, third-party groups that try to influence elections to detail their contributors and their expenses.
Supporters of the delay said the state ethics board doesn't have the ability yet to deal with the reporting requirement and the board believes the campaign finance reporting requirement goes well beyond what the Legislature intended when it passed the law.
The Senate, which had rejected a previous attempt at stalling the law, reversed course this week and agreed in a 31-5 vote to push back the start date, giving final passage to the delay.
But while the initial proposal would have delayed the new law for more than a year, the final agreement only stalls the law until August 15th. That gives lawmakers enough time during the current legislative session to tweak the new law.
The new law -- approved during the February ethics special legislative session -- requires any political organization fitting definitions found in the 527 section of federal tax law to file state reports that detail contributors, the amount of contributions and expenditures made. Lawmakers have complained the groups influence the outcomes of elections without being required to disclose their funding sources and spending like candidates must do.
