Attorney General Pushes Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform Bill

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who recently submitted the End New York Corruption Now Act to the Legislature, has been traveling the state to urge action on his bill before the build support for his bill.

The Attorney General traveled to Long Island on Friday, and to Rochester and Buffalo today.

The Attorney General’s bill (A.7870), which was introduced in the Assembly last week, would:

• ban outside income for State legislators
• ban per diem payments and allow reimbursement only for documented travel expenses,
• increase legislative salaries;
• extend legislative terms from two to four years;
• give the Attorney General the authority to prosecute public corruption without a referral from the Governor;
• create the new crime of ‘undisclosed self-dealing’;
• strengthen the existing pension forfeiture provisions;
• create a system of public financing of political campaigns;
• lower campaign contribution limits;
• close the LLC loophole;
• eliminate political party ‘housekeeping accounts’;
• restrict political donations by entities doing business with the state;
• limits campaign contributions by lobbyists; and
• prohibit the use of campaign funds for clothing or tuition payments.