The Texas Legislature again failed to deliver significant campaign disclosure reform in its last session and will have to wait until January 2001 to renew the deliberations. The Legislature passed a bill aimed at giving citizens better access to campaign finance records by requiring statewide and legislative candidates to file their reports by computer. However, the legislation only applies to legislative candidates who actively use computers. That's a small step compared to a more sweeping campaign disclosure bill that expired on the Texas Senate floor at midnight on May 26, the last day for the Senate to pass bills and joint resolutions for the 76th legislative session. House Bill 4 would have required statewide candidates to report late cash contributions promptly.
Contributors now can give money up to a month before the start of the legislative session.
Texas is among a handful of states that sets no limits on the size of contributions to legislative and executive branch candidates. This was not the first time a campaign finance bill was nixed in Texas. A similar group was supposed to be assembled to draw up a bill for the 76th legislative session, but it never materialized. Party officials worked on it behind closed doors and drew up a watered-down version of the bill that had failed in committee the session before,Woodford said. I blame the parties.