Brief (1)
SB 20 amends the Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act by striking the current $5,000 bond requirement for persons registering under the act. SB 20 was amended to raise the civil penalty from $2,000 to $5,000 for each violation. SB 20 also was amended to include a new civil penalty provision for violations against elderly or disabled persons or not to exceed $10,000 for each incident.
Background
The bill was requested by the Secretary of State to bring Kansas law into compliance with the recent decision of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court invalidated Utah's statutory requirement of a fund raiser's bond in American Target Advertising v. Giani, 199 F. 3d 1241 (10th Cir. 2000). The court determined that the bond was an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of speech.
The amendments were suggested by Senator Schmidt.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi