BSB/3/11
Sponsored by Jack Faison, Jibran Khan of Brentwood High School
This legislation was filed in the No category category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this bill will be defined as follows: |
| 4 | A.) Lobbying - attempting to influence legislative action or attempting to influence the decisions of |
| 5 | a legislative body |
| 6 | B.) TREF(Tennessee Registration of Election Finance)-an agency that enforces laws regarding |
| 7 | campaign donations and other campaign finances |
| 8 | C.)PAC (Political Action Group)- An organization that collects and pools donations to support or go |
| 9 | against politicians and legislation |
| 10 | D.) NRA (National Rifle Association)- A lobbyist organization that advocates for guns rights |
| 11 | E.) Special Interest - Individual who supports a specific cause or concern or interest. |
| 12 | F.) Revolving Door Prohibition - A model where politicians are not allowed to lobby within a certain |
| 13 | period of time after leaving office |
| 14 | G.) Cooling period - The period of time after which a politician retires from office and must restrain |
| 15 | from certain political activities until the cooling period is over |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Section 2: |
| 18 | Lobbyist groups can have severe impacts on legislation in Tennessee. The overall purpose of this |
| 19 | bill is to discourage the vicious cycle of lobbyism. Furthermore, this bill will dampen the power of |
| 20 | large and powerful lobbyist organizations so that our important legislation will have stronger |
| 21 | integrity. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Section 3: |
| 24 | This bill adds 6.5% tax on “lobbyist groups” and PACs which label themselves as non-profit |
| 25 | organizations; the 6.5% tax that these lobbyist groups or PACs make is the same way regular |
| 26 | business are taxed |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Section 4: |
| 29 | This bill bars all lobbyist groups and PACs from filing as a “non-profit organization”. Many large |
| 30 | lobbyist groups and PACs file under specific tax brackets, such as non-profit organizations, in order |
| 31 | to evade paying taxes. The TREF in conjunction with the House of Representatives and Senate |
| 32 | already define which organizations are considered PACs and/or lobbyist groups. This allows for the |
| 33 | tax from Section 3 to be much more effective and viable. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Section 5: |
| 36 | This bill will also utilize the TREF to reinforce the pre-existing law that special interests cannot |
| 37 | directly lobby legislators . For example, any individual who serves on a PAC board or a lobbyist |
| 38 | |
| 39 | political campaigns on their own behalf to get around the tax. This ensures that there are no |
| 40 | loopholes to get around the tax from section 3. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | Section 6: |
| 43 | Under this bill's provisions, Tennessee will adopt a “Revolving Door Prohibition” for anyone who |
| 44 | has held government office in Tennessee. The “cooling period” will be established at 3 years; this |
| 45 | means that retired politicians will have to wait at least 3 years after leaving office before they are |
| 46 | allowed to contribute to any form of lobbyism. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | Section 7 (Fiscal line): |
| 49 | The 6.5% tax imposed (from section 2) on the monetary campaign donations from PACs and |
| 50 | lobbyist corporations in Tennessee will be allocated to the Federal Election Committee. The TREF |
| 51 | will ensure that lobbyism and PACs are regulated, transparent, and restrained. |
| 52 |