32-1606 Covered elective office; request for public funds; disbursement; limitations on use; report.
32-1606. Covered elective office; request for public funds; disbursement; limitations on use; report.(1) Any candidate for a covered elective office who has satisfied the requirements of subsection (4) of section 32-1604 may, upon making expenditures which equal or exceed twenty-five percent of the spending limitation for the election period prescribed in such section, file an affidavit with the commission setting forth these facts and requesting public funds. The candidate shall be entitled to receive the greater of (a) the difference between the spending limitation and the highest estimated maximum expenditures filed by any of the candidate's opponents or (b) the difference between the spending limitation and the highest amount of expenditures reported in preelection campaign statements filed pursuant to section 32-1606.01, or subdivision (1)(a) or (b) of section 49-1459 by any of the candidate's opponents. For the election period, no candidate shall be entitled to receive more than three times the amount of the spending limitation for the election period. For the primary election period, no candidate shall be entitled to receive more than three times the amount of the spending limitation for the primary election period. The commission shall compute the amount of the payment to be made to a candidate. For purposes of this section, a candidate's opponent in a partisan primary election shall include only those other candidates of the same political party running for the same office and a candidate's opponent in a nonpartisan primary election shall include all candidates running for the same office.(2) Public funds to which a candidate is entitled under this section shall be disbursed to that candidate no earlier than the last date to amend an affidavit stating a reasonable estimate of expenditures pursuant to subdivision (5)(a) of section 32-1604 and no later than fourteen days after the election.(3) Public funds received pursuant to this section shall be kept in a separate account in a financial institution in this state, shall be used only to make expenditures, and shall not be counted against the spending limitations prescribed in section 32-1604. Any unexpended public funds shall be repaid to the state on or before December 31 of the final year of the election period.(4) Expenditures from public funds received pursuant to this section shall be reported to the commission on forms prescribed by the commission and in accordance with rules and regulations adopted and promulgated by the commission. SourceLaws 1992, LB 556, § 6; Laws 1993, LB 587, § 4; Laws 1997, LB 420, § 7; Laws 2006, LB 188, § 6. Cross ReferencesCommission, defined, see section 49-1412.