JUNEAU -- Legislators on Tuesday held their first hearing on a bill that would push back their annual deadline for filing reports that disclose how they earn their income and where they invest their money.
The reports are currently due March 15, and Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, wants to push that day back to April 30.
He said he's doing so at the request of a constituent who, as a member of a state board, has to file similar forms -- and who says the task would be made much easier if he had access to documents used to prepare his taxes, which are due April 15.
But the measure would also have the effect of making legislators' updated financial information unavailable until after their annual session, which typically ends in late April. That would prevent citizens and reporters from learning about current conflicts of interest that legislators may have. In the previous Legislature, reports showed that several legislators or their spouses worked directly for oil companies at the same time lawmakers voted for a bill to reduce oil taxes.
In a House committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Liz Vazquez, R-Anchorage, amended Hawker's bill to move the deadline even further back, to May 15, so legislators have more "breathing room," to file their disclosures after the end of the session.
The amendment was accepted without objection, with Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage, offering to be its co-sponsor.
At the hearing, committee members voiced support for Hawker's bill and some aired frustrations with the reporting requirements for both themselves and volunteer state board and commission members.
"It seems to me this bill is just the tip of the iceberg," said Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak.
In the Senate, a similar measure to delay the disclosures until May 15 has been introduced by Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage. At least one Democrat, Anchorage Sen. Berta Gardner, plans to sign on as a co-sponsor.
Giessel said she didn't coordinate with Hawker, though she also said she acted at the request of constituents.
"We're still being transparent," she said, noting that the bill makes no changes to the contents of the annual disclosures.
The current filing process, she added, takes her "off track" during the legislative session.
The requirement that legislators file financial disclosures dates back to a 1974 voter initiative passed in the Watergate era.
The original deadline was April 15, but that was changed in 1998 to give people access to the disclosures before the end of the legislative session, according to testimony Tuesday from a staff member at the state agency that oversees the filings.
Legislators and others required to prepare the disclosures have to identify their employers and the employers of their spouse and children, and in broad ranges how much money each earns.
They also have to report loans and debts, rental income, business and financial interests, gifts, and government contracts and leases.
In an interview, Gardner acknowledged that the measures to push back the deadlines are a "convenience" for legislators.
"But it makes sense," she said. "It's hard to do it until I have my tax returns done. And we're hot and heavy in session, and we're not at home."
Most people, Gardner added, don't review the disclosure documents until campaign season in the fall, when the filings are often mined for damaging information.
"I've never read anybody's disclosure except in those circumstances," Gardner said.
Jessie Peterson, the director of the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, said in a telephone interview that the proposed changes carry a "sense of suspicion." It makes more sense, she added, for legislators to release their information during their session, when the public is "tuned in."
"What benefit does this bring to Alaskan citizens?" said Peterson, whose group advocates for disclosure. "It seems strange that it would be moved to right after the session."
In an interview, Hawker said that the legislative session is "essentially already over" by the current deadline, and extending it allows people to file their forms with "better quality information."
Legislators, he added, have to make the disclosures yearly, as well as when they file to run for office, so previous filings are already available.
He also said he's heard often from people who refrain from serving on boards or commissions because they can't get their finances in order by the current deadline.
"Thirty days, or whatever the difference turns out to be, isn't going to make any difference in the public's access to the information they need to evaluate a legislator," he said. "There's no skullduggery here whatsoever. What you see is what you get on this."