06 LC 29
2419S
The
Senate Ethics Committee offered the following substitute to HB
1141:
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Chapter 5 of Title 21 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to ethics in government, so as to provide for the venue of certain actions; to
provide for the payment of certain registration and other fees by persons who
register as lobbyists; to provide for the establishment of such fees; to provide
for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other
purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Chapter
5 of Title 21 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to ethics in
government, is amended by striking Code Section 21-5-8, relating to venue, and
inserting in lieu thereof a new Code Section 21-5-8 to read as
follows:
"21-5-8.
Venue
for prosecution of civil violations of this chapter or for any other action by
or on behalf of the commission shall be in
the county
of the residence of the candidate or public officer at the time of the alleged
violation or action
Fulton County,
Georgia."
SECTION
2.
Said
chapter is further amended by striking subsection (f) of Code Section 21-5-71,
relating to registration of lobbyists, and inserting in lieu thereof a new
subsection (f) to read as follows:
"(f)(1)
Each person registering under this Code section shall pay the registration fees
set forth in paragraph (2) of this subsection; provided, however, that a person
who represents any state, county, municipal, or public agency, department,
commission, or authority shall be exempted from payment of such registration
fees and a
person employed by an organization exempt from federal income taxation under
Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, as that code is
defined in Code Section 48-1-2, shall be exempted from payment of such
registration fees except for payment of an initial registration fee of
$25.00.
(2)(A)
The commission shall collect
the
following
fees:
for annual
lobbyist registration and for the issuance of identification cards under this
Code section. The amount of such fees shall be set by the State Accounting
Office annually after consultation with the commission such that the total
amount of such fees shall approximate the total of the direct and indirect costs
to the state for registering such lobbyists, filing the reports by such
lobbyists required by this article, providing identification cards to such
lobbyists, and enforcing the provisions of this article concerning lobbyists for
the year. In no event shall the registration fee exceed $200.00 per year for
any individual registered lobbyist. Additional registrations submitted by any
registered lobbyist for any given year shall not exceed $20.00 per additional
registration.
(A)
Annual lobbyist registration filed pursuant to this Code section
......................................................................................................................... $
200.00
(B)
Lobbyist supplemental registration filed pursuant to this Code section
............................................................................................................................ 10.00
(C)
Each lobbyist identification card issued pursuant to this Code section
............................................................................................................................. 5.00
(D)(B)
In addition to other penalties provided under this chapter, a filing fee of
$50.00 shall be imposed for each report that is filed late. In addition, a
filing fee of $25.00 shall be imposed on the fifteenth day after the due date if
the report has still not been
filed."
SECTION
3.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.