Section 169.254 - Contributions, expenditures, or volunteer personal services by corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization; contribution to ballot question committee or independent expenditure committee; independent expenditures as to ballot questions; violation; penalty(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section and section 55, and except with respect to loans made in the ordinary course of business, a corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization shall not make a contribution or expenditure or provide volunteer personal services that are excluded from the definition of a contribution under section 4(3)(a).(2) An officer, director, stockholder, attorney, agent, or any other person acting for a labor organization, a domestic dependent sovereign, or a corporation or joint stock company, whether incorporated under the laws of this or any other state or foreign country, except corporations formed for political purposes, shall not make a contribution or expenditure or provide volunteer personal services that are excluded from the definition of a contribution under section 4(3)(a).(3) A corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization may make a contribution to a ballot question committee or independent expenditure committee subject to this act. A corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization may make an independent expenditure in any amount advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate, or the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question and does not for this reason become a committee, unless it solicits or receives contributions in excess of $500.00 for the purpose of making the independent expenditure, but is subject to the independent expenditure reporting requirements under section 51.(4) A person that knowingly violates this section is guilty of a felony punishable, if the person is an individual, by imprisonment for not more than 3 years or a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both, or, if the person is not an individual, by a fine of not more than $10,000.00.Amended by 2023, Act 244,s 4, eff. 2/13/2024.Amended by 2019, Act 93,s 13, eff. 10/10/2019.Amended by 2017, Act 119,s 15, eff. 9/20/2017.Amended by 2015, Act 269,s 12, eff. 1/6/2016.1976, Act 388, Eff. 6/1/1977 ;--Am. 1989, Act 95, Imd. Eff. 6/21/1989 ;--Am. 1994, Act 117, Eff. 4/1/1995 ;--Am. 1995, Act 264, Eff. 3/28/1996.