Relates to the disclosure of monies received by members of the legislature for purposes of legal defense

2 Co-sponsors

• Liz Krueger
• Diane J. Savino

BILL NUMBER:S807

Title of bill

An act to amend the public officers law and the legislative law, in relation to the receipt of monies by members of the legislature for purposes of legal defense

Purpose

Requires disclosure of monies received by members of the legislature for the purposes of legal defense.

Summary of provisions

Section one (1) requires legislators to disclose any special defense fund contributions to the Legislative Ethics Commission (2) defines contribution and applies to contributions made on or after January 1, 2015 (3) requires that any anonymous contributions received by a legislator for his/her defense fund turned over to the state comptroller for deposit into the state treasury.

Section 2 amends the legislative law to include and define legal defense fund contributions among gifts from family, household or personal relationship.

Section 3 requires the Legislative Ethics Commission to post such disclosure information on its website.

Section 4 states that this act shall take effect immediately provided that that section one of this act shall be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after January 1, 2015.

Justification

There is currently a loophole in state ethics regulations which allows for those in office to create legal defense funds. This allows supporters to make donations to help lawmakers with their personal legal bills. Although the Legislative Ethics Commission can approve the creation of a special defense fund outside the gift ban, the contribution amounts and contributors are kept secret from the public. This bill would help to close this loophole and require full disclosure. Donation amounts and donor identities will no longer be anonymous.

Although it is unethical to allow contributions to pay for any bills for an incident which results from a lawmaker's private conduct, ridding this practice of its anonymity is the first step in addressing this situation.

Legislative history

2013/2014: S.1144 Referred to Senate Committee on Finance 2011/2012: S.590A Referred to Senate Committee on Finance 2009/2010: S.6260A Referred to Senate Committee on Finance

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately provided that section one of this act shall be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after January 1, 2015.