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History
- Referred to elections
- Referred to elections
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S5094
Title of bill
An act to amend the election law, in relation to the use of campaign funds to pay attorney's fees
Purpose
The purpose of this legislation is to explicitly prohibit the use of campaign funds to pay attorney's fees or other costs associated with criminal or civil litigation.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends section 14-130 of the election law to expressly prohibit the use of campaign funds to pay attorney's fees or costs of defending against civil or criminal investigation or prosecution for alleged violations of state or federal law. The only exception would be for costs related to civil actions for alleged violations of Article 16 of the Election Law.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date.
Justification
Currently, New York's election law, allowing candidates to spend campaign funds for "any lawful purpose," is among the most lax in the nation. While spending campaign funds for personal use is technically prohibited, the lack of any definition for what constitutes a personal use renders the provision meaningless. This shortcoming in the law is striking when compared to the detailed restrictions issued by the Federal Election Commission.
Campaign donors have a reasonable expectation that their contributions will be used for the candidate's election efforts and the execution of his or her duties,. They do not expect their contributions to subsidize attorney's fees or litigation costs that have nothing to do with the nomination or election of the candidate to whom they made a donation. This legislation would therefore clarify that campaign funds may not be used for this purpose while preserving candidates' ability to use campaign funds for legal fees directly involved with nomination or election to office.
Local fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the 60th day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.