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Saturday, August 06, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - "Campaign gift limits violate state law, AG opinion says" [Updated]

Updating three earlier ILB entries, all headed "State Sen. Tom Wyss wants Indiana’s attorney general to issue an opinion on the legality of the bill before Fort Wayne City Council that would ban city contractors from making political donations to city politicians," Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reporter Benjamin Lanka writes today in a long story that begins:

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller's office believes a Fort Wayne measure to limit political contributions from city contractors violates state law, and it likely dooms the proposal to failure.

Matthew J. Light, Zoeller's chief counsel, issued a three-page opinion Friday outlining why a proposal from Councilwoman Liz Brown, R-at large, violates state law. He wrote that because the state regulates elections and campaigns, local governments have no authority to do so.

"It is my opinion that the proposed ordinance, if enacted by the city of Fort Wayne, would be invalid as an attempt to regulate, without specific statutory authority, conduct which is regulated by a state agency," Light wrote.

Brown's bill was intended to prevent businesses who donate to city politicians from being able to win contracts with the city. She tried to introduce it more than a month ago, but it has been dogged by questions of its legality from the beginning. The state election division has already released a legal opinion similar to that from the attorney general's office.

The FWJG includes a link to the 3-page AG opinion, which is headed "Privileged and Confidential, Attorney-Client Communication, Advisory Letter #11-15."

[Updated at 3:50 pm] This July 19th ILB entry referenced a July 15th story headed "Legal challenges can cost taxpayers: Suits involving Medicaid, immigration have been filed," about the two suits currently pending in federal court, both arising from legislation passed by the last General Assembly, where some wondered why the AG did not advise about potential legal issues with the bills before they were passed into law. From the story:

[AG spokesman Bryan] Corbin said state legislators were not able to request legal advice on the measures they passed.

“Per a longstanding policy, the attorney general’s office does not issue formal legal advisory opinions to our clients about pending legislation during session,” Corbin said.

Here, however, advice has been given by the AG concerning a pending local ordinance...

For commentary relating to the content of the AG's opinion on the proposed Fort Wayne ordinance, see this entry today from Paul Ogden on Politics.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 6, 2011 08:54 AM
Posted to Indiana Government