Officials: No consequences for not paying ethics fines

The South Carolina Ethics Commission lists politicians who owe thousands of dollars in campaign disclosure fines. However, there are not laws that force politicians to pay the fines they owe.

“It’s extreme. Truly rediculous amounts of money,“ are the words Assistant Director of the General Counsel Cathy Hazelwood uses to describe fines issued by the state ethics commission to Horry County Councilwoman Liz Gilland and several other politicians.

Gilland is one of several public officials across the state who owes thousands of dollars all for not filing campaign finance forms on time.

“If you’re going to run for office and take peoples’ money to run for office than you need to disclose from whom you’re receiving the money, and you need to disclose how you’re spending the money,“ said Hazelwood.

There are four deadlines throughout the year in which candidates have to disclose campaign finances to the ethics commission.

There is a 5-day grace period for each quarterly deadline. Beyond that, candidates are fined 100 dollars a day for not sending the ethics commission a disclosure form.

But according to the Hazelwood, many candidates, including Gilland haven’t paid their fines and there is no law that would put them in prison for not paying the ethics fines.

“I think part of that is, what’s the fine? Because if you don’t pay an IRS fine the problems can be vast and painful. In this case, it’s an administrative fine that can grow so far beyond the realm of possibility that it gets so large that nobody can even fathom it,“ said Hazelwood.

While Hazelwood says several politicians may not pay those state ethics fines she says it could wind up costing them future elections.

Laura Best, a member of Conservatives for Responsible Government, agrees with Hazelwood on the impact of the fines.

“As far as her political career is concerned right now, it’s gone,“ said Best, speaking about Gilland.

Best says the fines are not only hurting Liz Gilland and the other candidates who received them, but the entire Republican Party.