HONOLULU � Hawaii businesses may donate the same amounts to political candidates as individuals, according to a Thursday ruling by the state Intermediate Court of Appeals upholding a lower court�s decision.

The appeals court rejected an argument that companies should only be allowed to contribute a total of $1,000 to all candidates in an election.
The court�s decision means that businesses and unions can donate to a candidate as much as campaign committees and individuals � between $2,000 and $6,000 per election cycle, depending on the office being sought.
The case pitted Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares against the state Campaign Spending Commission, which claimed that she shouldn�t have accepted contributions of more than $1,000 from several businesses during her 2006 run for office.
The court said the law is �clear and unambiguous� in that it only limits contributions to political action committees to $1,000, and it doesn�t prohibit direct donations to candidates.
�We�re very pleased. What the court said is what we believed all along,� said William Crockett, a Maui attorney who represented the Tavares campaign. �The whole law makes sense. I don�t think it�s an illogical mish-mash.�
Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Barbara Wong said the court�s ruling will make it more difficult for voters to know who is giving money to which candidates.
�The court�s decision is a blow to transparency,� Wong said. �The public will no longer be able to see at a glance, in one noncandidate report, special interest campaign contributions and expenditures.�
The dispute arose out of a law passed by the 2005 Legislature that the Campaign Spending Commission argued was meant to hinder business from influencing the outcome of elections. The law limits contributions to a noncandidate committee to $1,000.
If the court�s ruling stands, companies still may not donate more than $1,000 to a political action committee, but they can directly give up to the maximum allowed to as many candidates as they choose. Wong didn�t say whether she would appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The Hawaii Legislature considered passing a measure this year that would have raised the amount businesses could donate to political action committees to as much as $50,000, but lawmakers turned away the proposal amid protests from government watchdog groups.
�They took a gamble and now they�ve lost. With this decision, there is no cap� on the total amount businesses can give directly to all candidates, said House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro, D-Aiea-Halawa.
Oshiro said he supports creating a limit next year, but he doubts such a proposal will have enough political backing to become law.
Twenty-one states ban corporate contributions to political action committees and candidates, according to Americans for Democratic Action-Hawaii. Another 14 states limit corporate political action committee contributions.