Senate Elections Committee to Hold Hearing on Public Financing of Campaigns

The Senate Elections Committee is holding a public hearing this coming Tuesday “to examine the abuses within New York City’s taxpayer funded political campaign system and the implications for state taxpayers if the system were to be expanded statewide.”

The Senate Republicans, who make up most of the Senate’s majority coalition, have not put out any of their own election or campaign finance proposals. (Read my prior post on proposals by the Governor, the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Co-Leader here.)

A group of advocates for public financing of campaigns (which opponents refer to as “taxpayer-funded campaigns”) are criticizing Senator Tom O’Mara, Senate Elections Committee Chair, for receiving a majority of his contributions from outside of his district.