The reform package - including a change allowing county contractors to resume donating to county candidates - endured a lashing from the county's Republican boss.
Former County Councilman Steve Harmsen even resurfaced to chastise his ex-colleagues for striking down the barely 8-month-old ban on contractor contributions.
"It creates a negative impression," Harmsen said.
County GOP Chairman James Evans also criticized the council, including fellow Republicans. A day earlier he hinted at a push for a voter referendum - Evans insists it's still a possibility - if the contractor ban were removed.
"They're misreading the public's feeling toward county government," Evans said of council members. "This is a step backward."
But Democratic Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, who helped craft the new rules, applauded the group for adopting a reform package "I can be proud of."
"It significantly lessens the amount of money that comes through the door here," she said.
Under the new restrictions, all individual campaign donations will be reduced from $5,000 to $2,000 - an amount that can be accepted only three times during a candidate's election cycle. That means individual donors could give a total of $6,000 when previous elections saw some hand over $20,000 or more.
The new rules cap in-kind contributions from political parties at $10,000 when the money is used for a "coordinated" campaign for a particular candidate.
Even so, Harmsen warned the "coordinated" provision creates a gray area that makes it easier for parties to, as he put it, "launder" money. He also fears negative campaigning could skyrocket if the parties opt to skirt the spending cap and launch attack ads on opponents instead.
Meantime, the council settled on $500 as the amount at which individual donors must disclose their occupation. Some had favored $200.
Wilson insists killing the contractor ban is not political, just difficult to administer. Allowing $40,000 from a developer - which was possible under the previous rules - while restricting a hard-to-define "contractor" seems unfair.
"The best way to eliminate that conflict was just to lower limits generally," she said.
The lone "no" vote came from Republican Councilman Marv Hendrickson, who likened the contractor prohibition to the county's recently enacted gift ban.
"If the amount is zero, they both should be zero," he said.
Some council members suggested that lowering the overall limits could reduce the pool of candidates and turn county government into a haven for the wealthy.
"I don't want to see us not have a registered nurse being able to run or a clerk at a radio store or a Wal-Mart," GOP Council Chairman Michael Jensen lamented.
But he agreed Wilson's reforms are a good compromise.
Jensen and Republican Councilman David Wilde endorsed the package in a preliminary vote Tuesday morning, but missed the afternoon's official passage.
An attempt to postpone the new rules until Jan. 1 failed, meaning the finance reforms will take effect by month's end.
djensen@sltrib.com
