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After an investigation by Propublica and the Texas Tribune, Texas lawmakers are pushing for sudden penalties on local governments that do not post campaign finance reports online.
The first posting requirement, designed to make election spending more transparent, came into effect almost two years ago. Most district leaders said they didn’t know they were out of compliance until the newsroom contacted them. Even after many districts uploaded documents submitted for fiduciary elections, reports were still missing because candidates were not turning them or the school lost them.
“I was surprised and disappointed,” said Republican Rep. Carl Tepper, who wrote the online posting requirements. “We really realized we didn’t put our teeth on the bill.”
Tepper aims to amend that with a new bill at this legislative meeting. He cited the findings of the newsroom in a written explanation of why the state needs to implement greater enforcement.
The measure requires the Texas Ethics Committee, the agency implementing state election laws, to monitor the websites of thousands of local governments across the state and notify you of whether campaign finance reports are missing. If these agencies do not upload records submitted by candidates within 30 days of state notice, the committee will be fined up to $2,500 each day until they comply.
The proposed measures also recommend that state funds be allocated to the Ethics Committee, which employs two additional staff members in the state. The job is to monitor all local government entities that hold public elections in 254 counties and around 1,200 cities and towns in the state. The newsroom previously discovered that the agency did not have staff dedicated to implementing compliance in local elections, and instead investigated missing or late reports only when they received tips.
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The Galveston Independent School District supervisor, discovered by ProPublica and The Tribune, said he had not posted a campaign finance report online last year.
“I like the proposal for a 30-day period to achieve compliance once the issue is reported,” Matthew’s neighbor said of the new proposal in an emailed statement. “For example, our district did not object to posting necessary campaign information after new employees were aware of the requirements.”
Kelly Rusty, associate executive director of government relations for the Texas Education Board Association, said the district did not deliberately underestimate the law. Rusty said the employees who are tasked with handling school board election documents are not always well versed in state regulations, and the association plans to provide additional resources later this year.
District employees are used to handling many education-related documents and reporting requirements imposed by the state. But “the elections are completely different and it appears that the laws and regulations associated with them are evolving,” Rusty said.
In particular, Tepper’s bill does not directly require the ethics committee to penalize or follow up candidates who fail to submit a report. He initially included provisions in the bill that would make candidates not eligible to run for office if they win elections but fail to submit those records. He told the newsroom that he reduced the penalty after realising the logistical challenges it may present.
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This means that if the ethics committee misses a submission, it must investigate any of the state’s estimated 22,000 local election candidates and offices and decide whether to fine them. In contrast, candidates running for statewide offices will be automatically fined by the committee if there is no deadline.
Tepper’s ultimate goal is for the ethics committee to create a unified system in which the campaign finance records of state and local candidates in one central database, rather than leaving local declarations scattered across government websites in thousands of cities, counties and school districts. Republican lawmakers have retracted his proposal to create such a system in 2023 after the committee estimated it would cost $20 million, but he told the newsroom he wanted enough support to hold the next session in 2027.
For now, he sees his proposal as a necessary progress.
“I have a great belief in gradualism,” Tepper said. “This is another step towards better enforcement.”
