Department of State Proposes Regulations for Political Consultant Filings

nysdos_logoThe New York Department of State (DoS) has issued proposed regulations (see page 24) to carry out statutory changes requiring public disclosures by political consultants that were adopted in the waning hours of the 2016 legislative session and later signed into law by the Governor.

Executive Law § 109 was amended in Part H of Chapter 286 of 2016 to require the registration of political consultants twice each year, and for political consultants to identify their clients and the services they provided to their clients.

According to the rulemaking compliance schedule, the regulations will be applied retroactively.  For the first reporting period, July 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016, the registration must be filed with DoS by January 10, 2017.

The rulemaking notice indicates that DoS plans to implement an electronic filing system, through which the public can access them:

“Currently, the Department [of State] has neither the technological capabilities nor resources to accept electronic submissions, payments and provide public disclosure of the information required by Section 109 of the Exec. Law. To meet the legislative objectives imposed by Section 109 the Department, in consultation with the Office of Information Technology Services (OITS), will have to develop a new online portal to allow political consultants to submit the required disclosures, establish a secure system to process and accept filing fees, and facilitate public posting of such disclosures within 30 days of filing. OITS estimates the cost for new software/hardware, maintenance, and staff allocation to create a system capable of fulfilling the legislative objects to be approximately $1,000,000.00.”

DoS will accept public comment on these proposed regulations until December 27, 2016. Anyone who wishes to submit a comment may do so via regular mail to: New York State Department of State, 123 William St., 20th Fl., New York, NY 10038 Attn: David Mossberg, Esq., or via email to [email protected].