A new campaign finance law allows corporations — for the first time — to give as much as $12,000 a year to state political parties and campaign committees controlled by legislative leaders.

But the measure has one glaring omission:

It does not require Democrat or Republican party officials to disclose anything about the corporate cash, including where they get it or how they spend it, according to state election officials.

Everybody will now have to trust the political pros to do the right thing. The new law took effect last week.

"The advice we're giving (to the political parties) is that the statutes do not currently require registration and reporting of these corporate donations, though the Board and the Legislature could review that in the future," said Reid Magney, spokesman for the state Government Accountability Board.

"Thus, there is no way to track them in CFIS unless a party chooses to disclose them (voluntarily)," Magney added. CFIS refers to the Campaign Finance Information System, the state's online database of election spending.

Officials with the state's two major political parties would not say this week if they plan to make public this information on their own. Both issued statements saying they would simply follow the law.

What's not clear is whether GOP lawmakers — who drafted and passed the bill — intentionally left out the public disclosure requirement. Were they, in short, guilty of being sloppy or secretive?

Either way, Matt Rothschild of the liberal Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said Republicans should address the issue immediately, calling the omission "outrageous."

"We need transparency — we need openness," said Rothschild, whose group opposed the campaign finance law. "We're already drowning in a sea of dark money."

No need to worry, said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who led the fight for the new law.

Last year, Vos argued that the measure would increase transparency by encouraging corporations to give to political parties instead of third-party groups, which have limited disclosure requirements.

The Rochester Republican said Thursday that he had no idea that the new state law could add a new layer of secrecy to the campaign system.

"That was clearly not our intent," Vos said.

He said he would go to work on a bill to correct the oversight. In the meantime, he said, his legislative committee, the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, will disclose any corporate donations, even if the parties don't. He urged other legislative campaign committees to do the same.

This disclosure loophole comes at a time when Vos and other top Republicans are under fire for encouraging greater secrecy on public records.

In July, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee slipped a provision in the state budget bill to limit what records lawmakers would have to release to the public about their work. After coming under sharp criticism from the left and the right, GOP lawmakers quickly retreated.

But then an aide to Vos sought a new bill to give the Legislature and individual lawmakers a different status on open records from other government bodies and officials in Wisconsin. The Assembly speaker backed off when this came to light in September.

In addition, an obscure state body, the Public Records Board, quietly voted last year to change the definition of transitory records, or records deemed to have only temporary significance, but recently backtracked after an outcry from open government advocates.

The board will meet Monday to revisit the issue.

Problems with the new campaign finance law first came to light at the December board meeting of GAB.

Staff members urged the board to impose registration and reporting requirements on political parties and legislative campaign committees because the new law failed to do this for corporate donations.

Until now, corporations, Indian tribes and labor unions had been barred from making contributions to Wisconsin candidates or political parties. But the new law says they can give to segregated funds created by the parties or legislative committees, all of which are barred from transferring the money directly to candidates.

Originally, the Assembly's bill put no cap on the corporate donations, but the Senate limited the sum to $12,000 a year. A compromise bill adopted the Senate language. Gov. Scott Walkersigned the bill last month.

"In order to ensure that the segregated funds are not receiving more than $12,000 per calendar year from the restricted entities, and to ensure the segregated funds do not contribute to candidates or spend on express advocacy, both receipts and expenses must be reported and tracked," said the staff memo to the accountability board members. "This should include cash balance reporting, similar to committee reports."

But the board, which is being dismantled by lawmakers, decided last month to take no action to fix the problem.

Now it appears that there won't be public disclosure of this money without a change in the law.

Asked this week if his party would voluntarily disclose corporate donations, Brandon Weathersby, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, issued a vague statement:

"The Democratic Party is continuing to work with attorneys to determine the full effects of the new law. Of course, we plan to comply fully with all state reporting laws."

Pat Garrett, spokesman for the Republican Party, offered a similar response.

"The Republican Party of Wisconsin is currently reviewing the recent changes to campaign finance regulations," Garrett said, "and, as always, will continue to operate in compliance with the law."

Not much of an answer from either party. Once again, the public is kept in the dark.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.