(1) Contribution shall mean a payment, gift, subscription, assessment, expenditure, contract, payment for services, dues, advance, forbearance, loan, donation, pledge or promise of money or anything of ascertainable monetary value to a person, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of a candidate, or for the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question. An offer or tender of a contribution is not a contribution if expressly and unconditionally rejected or returned.

Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 49-1415

  • Ballot question: shall mean any question which is submitted or which is intended to be submitted to a popular vote at an election, including, but not limited to, a question submitted or intended to be submitted by way of initiative, referendum, recall, or judicial retention, whether or not it qualifies for the ballot. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1405
  • Candidate: shall mean an individual: (a) Who files, or on behalf of whom is filed, a fee, affidavit, nomination papers, or nominating petition for an elective office. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1409
  • Compensation: shall mean anything of monetary value received or to be received from a person, whether in the form of a fee, salary, forbearance, forgiveness, or any other form of recompense. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1414
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Election: shall mean a primary, general, special, or other election held in this state or a convention or caucus of a political party held in this state to nominate a candidate. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1416
  • Expenditure: shall mean a payment, donation, loan, pledge, or promise of payment of money or anything of ascertainable monetary value for goods, materials, services, or facilities in assistance of, or in opposition to, the nomination or election of a candidate or the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1419
  • Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
  • Influencing: shall mean promoting, supporting, affecting, modifying, opposing, or delaying by any means, including the providing of or use of information, statistics, studies, or analyses. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1429
  • Loan: shall mean a transfer of money, property, or anything of ascertainable monetary value in exchange for an obligation, conditional or not, to repay in whole or part. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1432
  • Person: shall mean a business, individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, labor organization, company, corporation, association, committee, or other organization or group of persons acting jointly. See Nebraska Statutes 49-1438
  • Year: shall mean calendar year. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801

(2) Contribution shall include the purchase of tickets or payment of an attendance fee for events such as dinners, luncheons, rallies, testimonials, and similar fundraising events; an individual’s own money or property other than the individual’s homestead used on behalf of that individual’s candidacy; and the granting of discounts or rebates by broadcast media and newspapers not extended on an equal basis to all candidates for the same office.

(3) Contribution shall not include:

(a) Volunteer personal services provided without compensation, or payments of costs incurred of less than two hundred fifty dollars in a calendar year by an individual for personal travel expenses if the costs are voluntarily incurred without any understanding or agreement that the costs shall be, directly or indirectly, repaid;

(b) Amounts received pursuant to a pledge or promise to the extent that the amounts were previously reported as a contribution; or

(c) Food and beverages, in the amount of not more than fifty dollars in value during a calendar year, which are donated by an individual and for which reimbursement is not given.

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