Attorney General Proposes Sweeping Non-Profit Campaign Disclosure Rules

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has issued a draft regulation that, if adopted, will require most nonprofits to disclose information regarding their election advocacy.

The draft rule requires non-profits registered in New York that participate in political campaigns to report their election-related expenditures and donations in their annual financial reports that are submitted to the Attorney General.

Non-profits would have to disclose what proportion of its total spending went to political activities, and where a group spends more than $10,000 on a state or local campaign, they will have to disclose the name of anyone donating more than $100.

This effort follows the Attorney General’s effort this past summer to address Super PAC spending in the state.  This could represent a huge change by forcing disclosure by groups that have never before been required to do so.

Public hearings on the draft regulation will be held on January 15^th in New York City, on January 29^th in Albany, on February 20^th in Buffalo and on February 27^th in Nassau County.  The rules are likely to be approved after the hearings, just in time for the New York City mayoral race.

Read more on this issue from the New York Times.