Provides relative to penalties for failure to timely or accurately file required reports (OR -$408,000 GF RV See Note)

House Bill 694 amends multiple Louisiana Revised Statutes governing the enforcement of ethics, campaign finance disclosure, and lobbying disclosure requirements by reducing the civil penalties, late fees, and criminal fines that the Board of Ethics and Supervisory Committee on Campaign Finance Disclosure may assess for late or inaccurate filings. Specifically, the bill reduces daily civil penalty amounts across all categories of campaign finance disclosure violations, lowering penalties for major office candidates from one hundred dollars per day to fifty dollars per day with a maximum reduced from two thousand five hundred dollars to one thousand two hundred fifty dollars, with proportional reductions for district office and other candidates. Similarly, the bill reduces ethics disclosure penalties under the Code of Governmental Ethics from two hundred fifty dollars per day to one hundred dollars per day, lowers retirement system financial disclosure penalties from one hundred dollars per day to fifty dollars per day, reduces disaster or emergency contract disclosure penalties from one hundred dollars per day to fifty dollars per day, and decreases personal financial disclosure penalties for various tiers of public servants ranging from fifty percent reductions for Tier 1 officials to fifty percent reductions for appointed board members. Additionally, the bill reduces lobbyist registration and reporting late fees from fifty dollars per day to twenty five dollars per day and caps associated civil penalties at five hundred dollars instead of one thousand dollars under both the state lobbying law and the local governmental lobbying law.

The practical effect of House Bill 694 impacts candidates, elected officials, public employees, political committees, independent expenditure committees, and registered lobbyists who are subject to filing requirements under Louisiana election law, the Code of Governmental Ethics, and lobbying disclosure statutes. Candidates for major office and their campaign committees face substantially reduced financial exposure for late or inaccurate campaign finance filings, as do political committees supporting or opposing candidates or ballot measures. Public servants required to file personal financial disclosures face lower penalty assessments for untimely or incomplete filings, affecting statewide elected officials, department secretaries, legislators, board members, and appointed commission members. Registered lobbyists operating under state and local lobbying laws experience reduced late fees for registration and report filings, making compliance less costly if deadlines are missed. The Board of Ethics and its adjudicatory panel consequently have reduced enforcement authority and revenue generation capacity through these penalty mechanisms.

House Bill 694 operates within the framework established by Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 42, which creates the Board of Ethics and vests it with administrative and enforcement authority over the Code of Governmental Ethics, legislative and local governmental lobbying registration requirements, and the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act by virtue of the Supervisory Committee on Campaign Finance Disclosure function. The bill specifically modifies penalty structures within R.S. 18:1505.4 governing campaign finance disclosure enforcement, R.S. 24:58 and R.S. 33:9668 regarding lobbyist registration under state law and local governmental law respectively, R.S. 42:1114 through 1124.4 covering various ethics disclosures and personal financial statement requirements, and R.S. 49:78 addressing state lobbying expenditure reporting. These modifications maintain the existing legal framework for disclosure requirements and administrative enforcement procedures while recalibrating the financial consequences of non-compliance, thereby affecting the deterrent effect of civil enforcement mechanisms as opposed to the underlying substantive obligations to file and accurately report.