October 29, 2014 5:27 PM

Updated: Texas Ethics Commission votes to require dark money groups to disclose donors

Groups that spend 25 percent or more of their annual revenue on politics will have to disclose; conservative supporters say the commission is closing a “dangerous loophole”

Setting things up for what could very well be another throwdown in The Legislature next year over so-called “dark money” in elections, the Texas Ethics Commission on Wednesday voted to adopt a rule that requires certain nonprofits to disclose their donors when they play in politics. Under the rule, groups would have to disclose donors if they spend 25 percent or more of their annual budget on political expenditures.

The commission has already sought to clarify that dark money groups can spend up to 20 percent of their revenue on political expenditures without disclosing the names of donors. That would be a “safe harbor,” so to speak.

At the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing on the issue, Commissioner Chase Untermeyer said critics of the agency have been way off base to suggest that they’re somehow overstepping their authority. “That is not the case,” he said. Untermeyer said he invites lawmakers to examine dark money in the 2015 session “if it is the will of The Legislature."

The way the process played out on SB 346 last session – that was the dark money bill carried by Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo – should have no bearing on what the commission is working on now, Untermeyer said. That process ended with Gov. Perry’s veto, as QR readers may remember.

"That is a matter of history and it is not relevant to our deliberations," Untermeyer said. Now that the dust has settled on that fight, “we are left with our sworn duty which is to enforce the law as is currently written,” he said. Untermeyer added, however, that the law is “vague” and further guidance from lawmakers would be appropriate.

During the hearing, TEC Chairman Jim Clancy pointed out that the failure of SB 346 did not change the fact that the Texas Government Code requires the commission to work to "disclose fully information related to expenditures and contributions for elections and for petitioning the government.”

None of the conservative Texas Senate nominees who previously warned the commission that the agency was overstepping its authority accepted Clancy’s invitation to testify about it. At least one of them, Bob Hall, was down the hall in the Texas Capitol during the commission’s meeting, by the way. A spokesman for Hall said his opinion was made clear in his original letter.