JACKSON, Miss.- With the 2017 Mississippi Legislative Session just around the corner, lawmakers are beginning to speak out on pieces of legislation they hope are passed in the next few months.
One of those includes campaign finance reform.
Representative Hank Zuber has written legislation that would do two things:
- Officials would not be allowed to take campaign funds home after leaving office.
- Campaign funds would not be allowed to be spent on personal items.
“We have the Senate, we have the Lt. Governor, we have hopefully most of the house and we have the Speaker committed to campaign finance reform,” said Zuber.
This reform would ensure that money donated to a politician’s campaign would not end up in their pockets, but benefiting Mississippi.
“You can give it to a 501-C3, you can give it to a political party, you can give it to another political candidate, you can give it to your local school district. Basically you can do pretty much anything with it except take it home with you,” said Zuber.
Zuber said this reform is the right thing to do. He said it is wrong for a public official to have a golden parachute and become unjustly enriched because of public service.
“We are getting away from public service and it’s becoming more of ‘what can you do for me,’ and the public senses it. People are just upset with the system,” said Zuber.
He said more than one bill should be seen during the session addressing this campaign finance reform.
