Breaking News: Temporary Reprieve for Non-Profits

Business entities that are non-profit organizations have at least an extra month to prepare their pay-to-play (P2P) disclosure reports, and ultimately may not be required to report at all. The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) announced today that it will reconsider its regulations that include non-profits organizations within the definition of “business entity” and suspend the September 28 filing deadline for non-profits only. ELEC anticipates receiving at its October 23, 2007 meeting an opinion from the State Attorney General whether or not inclusion of non-profits within P2P annual disclosure requirements is legally correct. If ELEC concludes that non-profits remain subject to the disclosure requirements, their 2006 reports will be due October 30, 2007. The Attorney General opinion was requested by the State Treasurer and Department of Community Affairs, which earlier had indicated on their respective websites that nonprofits were subject to P2P reporting. The ruling does not affect for-profit business entities, which remain subject to the September 28 deadline.