What's happening
This bill requires political committees to itemize all campaign contributions regardless of amount and changes partnership contribution reporting rules.
Why it matters
Increases transparency by requiring political committees to itemize every campaign contribution, regardless of size. This eliminates the previous threshold that allowed small contributions (under $99) to remain unreported as individual line items, making it easier to track all donor activity.
Closes a loophole that allowed bundled small donations to go unreported. By mandating itemization of all contributions, the bill makes it harder for donors to obscure their identities by making multiple small contributions or for committees to aggregate and hide sources.
Changes how partnership donations are reported by requiring attribution of all large contributions to individual partners. Previously, only partners whose share exceeded $99 were named; now, if a partnership's total contribution exceeds $2,500, the full amount must be attributed to each partner, increasing accountability for large partnership donations.
May increase administrative burden for campaigns and donors,. as all contributions—no matter how small—must now be tracked and reported individually, possibly requiring improved recordkeeping and compliance systems.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Disclose All Campaign Donations
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to election law
- Referred to election law
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4682
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 3, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. WALTER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to reporting of campaign receipts and expenditures
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 14-102 of the election law, as amended by chapter 8 and redesignated by chapter 9 of the laws of 1978, is amended to read as follows:
1. The treasurer of every political committee which, or any officer, member or agent of any such committee who, in connection with any election, receives or expends any money or other valuable thing or incurs any liability to pay money or its equivalent shall file statements sworn, or subscribed and bearing a form notice that false statements made therein are punishable as a class A misdemeanor pursuant to section 210.45 of the penal law, at the times prescribed by this article setting forth all the receipts, contributions to and the expenditures by and liabilities of the committee, and of its officers, members and agents in its behalf. Such statements shall include the dollar amount of any receipt, contribution or transfer, or the fair market value of any receipt, contribution or transfer, which is other than of money, the name and address of the transferor, contributor or person from whom received, and if the transferor, contributor or person is a political committee; the name of and the political unit represented by the committee, the date of its receipt, the dollar amount of every expenditure, the name and address of the person to whom it was made or the name of and the political unit represented by the committee to which it was made and the date thereof, and shall state clearly the purpose of such expenditure. Any statement reporting a loan shall have attached to it a copy of the evidence of indebtedness. Expenditures in sums under fifty dollars need not be specifically accounted for by separate items in said
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04751-01-7
A. 4682 2
statements, [and receipts and contributions aggregating not more than ninety-nine dollars, from any one contributor need not be specifically accounted for by separate items in said statements,] provided however, that such expenditures[, receipts and contributions] shall be subject to the other provisions of section 14-118 of this article.
§ 2. Subdivision 2 of section 14-120 of the election law, as added by chapter 79 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:
2. Notwithstanding subdivision one of this section, a partnership, as defined in section ten of the partnership law, may be considered a separate entity for the purposes of this section, and as such may make contributions in the name of said partnership without attributing such contributions to the individual members of the partnership provided that any such contribution made by a partnership to a candidate or to a political committee, shall not exceed, twenty-five hundred dollars. In the event that such partnership contribution to any such candidate or political committee exceeds twenty-five hundred dollars, the aggregate amount of such contribution shall be attributed to each partner [whose share of the contribution exceeds ninety-nine dollars].
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.