Governor and Legislative Leaders Announce Agreement on Ethics, Campaign Finance and Lobbying Reforms

press_rel_agreementAs the wait for the end of the 2016 legislative session continues (it was supposed to end yesterday, according to the legislative calendar), Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Heastie announced that they have reached agreement on a 5-point ethics plan.

There is no bill yet, but according to the press release, the plan includes:

  • a prohibition on coordination between independent expenditure groups (commonly called ‘SuperPACs’) and political candidates;
  • a constitutional amendment allowing the pensions of any “public officer” to be forfeited upon conviction of a crime related to their public office;
  • a requirement that political consultants who provide services to elected officials or candidates who also have clients with business before the state or a local government to register with the state and disclose their clients;
  • amendments to the ‘Source of Funding’ reporting requirements that reduce the annual lobbying threshold from $50,000 to $15,000, and the threshold for a reportable contribution from $5,000 to $2,500; and
  • requiring 501(c)(4) organizations, which can engage in unlimited lobbying activities, to disclose any financial support (including in-kind donations) from 501(c)(3) organizations, which are not permitted to engage in political activity.

In addition, the agreement explicitly excludes communications with journalists and editorial boards from the definition of lobbying, thus excluding these communications from lobbying regulation.  (Read background on this issue here.)

Read news coverage from Politico NY, the State of Politics blog, the Capitol Confidential blog, and City & State New York.