Rep. Cynthia Thielen motions to recommit SB 2609

From House Republican Caucus, April 11, 2018

Friday, April 6th, in a robust discussion, Representative Cynthia Thielen endeavored to recommit SB 2609 – relating to financial disclosure statements (please see video for the floor debate). In the Senate, this bill received seven noes and three ayes with reservations, and 12 noes and six ayes with reservations from the House.

On the floor when the motion to recommit was made, Representative Cynthia Thielen said,

“Article 14 of our Constitution requires all boards and commission members who wield significant discretionary or fiscal powers to file financial disclosure statements to promote transparency and accountability. It doesn’t matter whether these board and commission members are non-paid volunteers, they still wield significant discretionary or fiscal powers. This bill will require the redaction or the hiding of all financial amounts on the financial disclosure statements. So in other words, the public would be able to look at a meaningless document.”

In summary, Rep. Thielen finds this bill to be unconstitutional and thus her motion to recommit it to the Judiciary committee. The motion failed, but the discussion continued. See video for the full discussion.