Governor Calls for Campaign Finance Overhaul in State of the State Address

In yesterday’s State of the State Address kicking off the 2013 legislative session, Gov. Cuomo forcefully called for campaign finance reform and enhanced disclosure of political and lobbying contributions to rebuild trust in government.

Specifically, the Governor called for:

• a system of public financing of state elections;
• lower campaign contribution limits;
• a new Enforcement Unit at the State Board of Elections with some degree of independence from the Board;
• creation of “Disclose NY,” which will require campaign contributions over $500 to be reported within 48 hours; and
• addressing “independent expenditures” by “expanding and clarifying the types of political communications that must be reported to and filed with the Board of Elections by candidates, labor organizations, corporations, political committees, and other entities as well as the contributions made to the entities that paid for such communications.”

The Governor also suggested – but did not specifically call for – that he will propose closing the LLC loophole.

Common Cause/NY issued a statement in support of the Governor’s proposal.

As Jimmy Vielkind notes in this blog post, the enhanced disclosure portions of the Governor’s proposal will likely be the easiest part to enact.  The public financing aspect – which was in the Governor’s written materials, but not in his speech as delivered – could be much more difficult to achieve given the Senate GOP’s past opposition to using tax dollars to pay for political campaigns.