Senate to Hold Hearings on New York City’s Public Finance Program

In a press release issued yesterday, the Senate Republicans announced that they intend to hold public hearings on “New York City’s often abused public finance system amid calls by Democrats and good-government groups to replicate the system statewide.”

Senate Co-Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said:

“We are deeply skeptical that providing politicians with taxpayer dollars to finance their campaigns is a solution to the recent scandals.  As we’ve seen in New York City, it can be a recipe for more wrongdoing and more corruption.  As we seek reforms to tighten up our existing campaign finance and electoral laws, it’s important that we know more about the New York City experience and what it has meant for hardworking taxpayers.”

The release states that under the New York City program, candidates have been accused of creating “straw” or fictitious donors to maximize the amount of taxpayer dollars they would receive, and others have used taxpayer money inappropriately.

The hearings will be held by Senate Elections Committee Chair Tom O’Mara (R-Big Flats), but the date and location of the hearings was not announced.

In other campaign finance news, earlier today:

• 72 Assembly members wrote to Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) expressing their support for a public financing program; and
• Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) introduced S.4705, the 2013 Fair Elections Act, which would establish a publicly funded campaign finance system and create a new “Fair Elections Board” to administer it.