Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Contractor payola bill died, forgot to tell you, sorry
by Larry Geller
Just a followup. In a January 28 article I reported that Judiciary chair Jon Riki Karamatsu pushed through a “payola” bill to the House floor even though three organizations testified against the bill and there was no testimony in favor. Last week the bad bill was recommitted by unanimous vote of the House.
This was the bill that would have opened up campaign contributions to contractors who submit competitive bids.
For the story, see Derrick DePledge’s Reality v. Rhetoric (2/11/2010) on the Advertiser’s Notebook blog.
What does it say about legislative process when a committee chair can direct a vote for a bill that later the entire House (minus one “not present”) voted to kill? Those on his committee who fell into line had to eat their vote when their action turned into an election year embarrassment (only Representative Belatti voted No on the committee vote).
After last year’s fiasco over another pet Jon Riki campaign contribution bill, you’d think some of his committee members would pass a little note to him about giving up on these unsavory corporate money grabs.
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