New York Governor Delivers Reform Bill; New Law to Follow?

On June 11, 2013, with about one week of the legislative session remaining, Governor Cuomo introduced his plan for campaign finance reform in New York State. Citing New York as having some of the weakest campaign finance restrictions in the country, Cuomo’s proposed bill  seeks to:

• Create the toughest disclosure requirements in the country by requiring full disclosure of any independent expenditure advertisement and disclosure of contributor information for all contributions over $1,000 within 48 hours of receipt.
• Create a statewide public financing program that is modeled on the New York City Campaign program that both provides a matching funds program and significantly reduces the contribution limits to both participating and non-participating candidates.
• No longer treat LLC contributions as a contribution from an individual and instead as a corporate contribution with a proposed limit of $1,000 per year.
• Amend the current election law provision on personal use of campaign contributions to allow for contributions to be used only for expenses that are directly related to the election or public office.

The Governor’s bill provides for an effective date of June 1, 2014 for the independent expenditure reform provisions in time for next year’s state elections. The proposed campaign contribution and public financing reform provisions would go into effect for State elections held after January 1, 2015.