SALEM (AP) - Penalties for ethics violations by lawmakers should be increased, according to a review panel.

The Oregon Law Commission panel also recommended restrictions on non-campaign uses of campaign contributions but stopped short of recommending a ban on gifts to lawmakers.

The 15-member work group of lawyers and others, headed by Attorney General Hardy Myers, expects the law commission and the 2007 Legislature to consider the issue in coming months.

“Now all this stuff is on the front burner,” said state Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, a member of the panel.

The panel hearing Thursday follows a year of meetings by both the law commission's work group and the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature, which also is about to recommend legislative changes in the next month.

Some lawmakers have proposed a ban on all gifts after reports by The Oregonian newspaper that seven current and former legislators did not report that Oregon beer and wine distributors paid more than $2,000 for each of them to attend conferences in Maui in 2002 and 2004.

Oregon is one of five states with no limits on campaign contributions. It also has an ethics commission that even legislators agree is short of the money needed to adequately enforce the ethics laws that apply to public officials.

Legislative leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, and Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, say the news about the Hawaii trips leaves the Legislature no choice but to increase funding for the ethics commission and to toughen ethics laws next year.

Public-interest groups have called for changes that would limit the influence of wealthy campaign contributors.

Two Nov. 7 ballot proposals, Measures 46 and 47, would limit campaign contributions and spending.

Current law allows legislators and other public officials to use campaign money for everything from expenses related to their public office to paying their annual professional association dues to golf packages they purchase at charity auctions.

But the work group voted to say that candidates can only use contributions to their campaign “for the purpose of making expenditures to support the nomination or election of the candidate.”

“It's not the candidate's money,” said former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans Linde.

The panel's recommendation also says candidates may not take contributions given to their campaigns and pass them on to other campaigns. The group also recommended not allowing candidates or officials to use campaign money to pay criminal or civil penalties for purposes such as ethics or campaign law violations.

The work group will meet again Oct. 30. The law commission meets Nov. 15 in Salem to consider the group's proposals and forward final recommendations to the Legislature.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com