HB310 Alabama 2014 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Marcel Black

Democrat

Co-Sponsors

Darrio MeltonThomas JacksonArtis McCampbellBarbara Bigsby BoydMerika Coleman

Session

Regular Session 2014

Title

Political activity, Legislature, minority and majority parties caucus, public funds authorized for paying staff members of political caucus, Sec. 17-17-5 am'd.

Summary

HB310 would allow public funds to pay legislative caucus staff for legislative-process work and tighten rules on political activity, dues, and staff conduct for public employees.

What This Bill Does

It amends the law to let staff of legislative political caucuses, paid from state funds, perform legislative-process tasks without those tasks counting as political activities. It defines what a political caucus is and clarifies allowed duties such as policy formulation, issue analysis, and recommendations to the caucus. It also tightens rules on payments to political groups by public employees, requiring certifications and annual reporting on dues, and adds leave and anti-coercion protections for employees involved in political activity, with penalties for violations.

Who It Affects

• Staff members of legislative political caucuses who are paid from state funds; their legislative-process work would be exempt from being classified as political activities.
• Public employees and governmental entities (state, counties, cities, local boards) who fund or participate in political activities; they would face new rules on dues, required certifications, annual expenditure reporting, leave for political action, and anti-coercion protections.

Key Provisions

• Amends section 17-17-5(a)(2) to allow caucus staff paid with state funds to perform legislative-process work such as policy formulation, issue analysis, and caucus recommendations, without it being considered political activity; defines political caucus as majority in a house or minority in either house.
• Specifies tasks that count as legislative-process work for caucus staff and clarifies the definition of political caucus.
• Prohibits salary deductions or payments to political action committees or dues to membership organizations that use dues for political activity, and defines what counts as political activity (including political communications, polling, advertising, etc.).
• Requires organizations to certify that dues will not be used for political activity, provide annual detailed spending reports, and allows auditing; bars organizations that fail to certify or misreport from collecting dues through government entities.
• Adds approved leave for political action, prohibits soliciting contributions from subordinate employees, prohibits coercion of subordinates to work on campaigns, and treats violations as trading in public office with specified penalties.
• Sets an effective date of October 1, 2014.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 24, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Political Activities