The Art of the Possible?

Presentation of a bill likely reflects positions the proponent sees as good public policy, attainable, and/or, at least, negotiable. When New York Governor Cuomo’s proposed “Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2013” is compared with current New York City campaign finance law, we find an interesting mix of imitations and deviations. Here are several highlights.

Topic	Issue	Governor's Bill	New York City Law
Contribution Limits	Publicly Funded Candidates (primary and general election combined)	Statewide - $12,000 (primary and general) Legislature - $4,000 or $8,000 (primary and general)	City-wide - $4,950 City Council - $2,750
	Higher receipt limits for Non-Publicly Funded Candidates	Yes	No
	Higher contribution limits for Candidate's relatives	Yes	No
	Corporations	$1,000 annual aggregate limit	Prohibited to covered candidates
	Limited Liability Companies	$1,000 annual aggregate limit	Prohibited to covered candidates
	Labor Organizations and Labor PACs	Treated like individual contributors	May be treated as affiliated under a single contribution limit if they meet do not meet separate governance and account standards
	Reduced contribution limits if doing business with government or a lobbyist	No	Yes
	Political Party	May transfer $5,000 to candidate; also permits unlimited expenditures, including in coordination with candidate	Subject to regular contribution limit which also caps coordinated expenditures
Spending Limits		No	Yes
Independent Expenditures	Contains Magic Words (e.g., "vote for", "vote against")	Yes	Yes
	Can have no reasonable meaning  other than to advocate election or defeat	n/a	Yes
	Between 1 year and 60 days before general election (or 30 days before primary), could only be interpreted by a reasonable person as advocating for the election or defeat of the candidate based upon unequivocal, unambiguous terms of support or opposition	Yes	n/a
	Refers to a clearly identified candidate within  60 days or general election or 30 days of primary	Yes	Yes
	By telephone	Not specified	Yes, for communications with magic words or no other reasonable meaning
	Advance registration as political committee required	Yes	No
Permissible Uses of Campaign Funds	Payment of fines	No, if under State campaign finance law, criminal conviction, or imposed by J-COPE	Yes, if non-criminal and arising out of political campaign
Public Disclosure - for State elections (Bill) or NYC elections (NYC law)	Reporting of all contributions and loans > $1,000 within 48 hours	Yes	No
	Intermediary	Yes, defined as "delivery"	Yes, defined as delivery or solicitation
	Threshold for  disclosing contributor's or intermediary's occupation and business address	Contribution of $500 or more	Contributions of $100 or more
	Name of contributor's and intermediary's employer disclosed	Not specified	Yes
Public Financing	May opt-in for public funding in primary but not general election, and vice versa?	Unclear	No
	May receive public funds pre-primary even if unopposed in primary?	Yes, half maximum payment allowed if there's a primary in a major party for office sought	No
	May receive maximum public funds for each primary in which candidate is on the ballot (i.e., Wilson-Pakula authorization)?	Not precluded	Specifically precluded
	Provisions to reduce public funds payments in non-competitive elections	No	Yes
Permissible Uses of Public Funds	Pay business entity in which candidate has an interest	Not prohibited	Prohibited
	Pay penalty or fine	Not prohibited	Prohibited
	Payment to defend ballot petitions	Not prohibited	Prohibited
Public Financing Administration and Enforcement	Non-Partisan	No, State Board of Elections Enforcement Unit	Yes, NYC Campaign Finance Board
	Bi-Partisan	Yes	No
	Deadline for completing post-election audit	2 years	Variable and subject to indefinite postponement