This morning, members of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance team were at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) to testify against changes to existing OCPF regulations.

OCPF has proposed changes to current rules that would give it broad discretion to require donor disclosure. None of the proposed changes would impact MassFiscal and MassFiscal will never disclose the generous support of its members.

One provision would give OCPF the authority to make a unilateral determination — without ever speaking to a donor — that the donor “had reason to know” how their donation would be used by the recipient organization, and to order disclosure of that donor’s name and address as a result. Another provision proposes eliminating the existing right of donors to present evidence and facts to OCPF as to why disclosure should not be required.

MassFiscal believes a revision of this magnitude, which greatly expands OCPF’s purview, exceeds the original intent of OCPF’s authorizing legislation. A change like the one proposed should be made by the Legislature, not through a bureaucratic regulatory change.

Our Spokesman, Paul D. Craney, outlines our case against these changes in an Op-Ed at Commonwealth Magazine which you can read by clicking here. Our attorney, Tad Heuer offered written and oral testimony, which you may download here.