STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1721 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 13, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SKOUFIS, GOUNARDES, KRUEGER, SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to permit or license applicant contributions The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The election law is amended by adding a new section 14-131 2 to read as follows: 3 § 14-131. Permit or license applicant contributions. 1. (a) It shall 4 be unlawful during the restricted permit and license applicant contrib- 5 ution period for any person, organization, group of persons, or business 6 entity that submits an application for any permit or license to make a 7 contribution to any officeholder of or with authority over the state 8 governmental entity or entities responsible for issuing such permit or 9 license, evaluating permit or license applications for purposes of their 10 merit, or approving permit or license applications, or to any candidate 11 for an office of such governmental entity, including to such 12 officeholder's or candidate's authorized political committees or poli- 13 tical committees the officeholder or candidate exerts operational 14 control over. It shall further be unlawful, pursuant to section 14-120 15 of this article, to make contributions to political committees not 16 authorized or operationally controlled by the officeholder or candidate 17 for the purpose of transferring a contribution to the officeholder's or 18 candidate's authorized political committees or political committees they 19 exert operational control over. 20 (b) The state governmental entity directly responsible for issuing 21 such permit or license shall include a notice of the prohibition estab- 22 lished by this section in application materials and the state govern- 23 mental entity responsible for evaluating such applications shall provide 24 to any person, organization, group of persons, or business entity that EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD04575-01-3

S. 1721 2 1 submits an application a notice of the prohibition established by this 2 section and the restricted permit and license applicant contribution 3 period commencement date. 4 2. As used in this section "business entity" means a business corpo- 5 ration, professional services corporation, limited liability company, 6 partnership, limited partnership, business trust, association or any 7 other legal commercial entity organized under the laws of this state or 8 any other state or foreign jurisdiction, including any subsidiary 9 directly or indirectly controlled by the business entity, any political 10 organization, including but not limited to any political organization 11 organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, that is 12 directly or indirectly controlled by the business entity and any owner, 13 officer, director or a spouse, child, parent, or sibling of an owner, 14 officer or director of such business entity. 15 3. The restricted permit and license applicant contribution period 16 described in this section shall commence, with respect to a specific 17 person, organization, group of persons, or business entity when it files 18 a statement of registration pursuant to section one-e of the legislative 19 law, or engages in lobbying, as defined by subdivision (c) of section 20 one-c of the legislative law, to receive a permit or license or submits 21 an application to the state governmental entity responsible for issuing 22 a permit or license. The restricted permit and license applicant 23 contribution period does not apply to a person, organization, group of 24 persons or business entity that is responding to a state governmental 25 entity's request for information or other informational exchanges occur- 26 ring prior to such person, organization, group of persons or business 27 entity submitting a permit or license application provided it has not 28 filed a statement of registration pursuant to section one-e of the 29 legislative law or engaged in lobbying, as defined by subdivision (c) of 30 section one-c of the legislative law, to receive a permit or license. 31 4. The restricted permit and license applicant contribution period 32 described in this section shall end with respect to a specific person, 33 organization, group of persons, or business entity if: 34 (a) the person, organization, group of persons, or business entity is 35 the recipient of the applied for permit or license, the restricted 36 permit and license applicant contribution period shall end six months 37 after the issuance of the permit or license by the state governmental 38 entity and, where applicable, the state comptroller and if the person, 39 organization, group of persons or business entity does not lobby on the 40 permit or license after its issuance; or 41 (b) the person, organization, group of persons, or business entity's 42 application for a permit or license is denied, the restricted permit and 43 license applicant contribution period shall end with the issuance of 44 notification of the denial by the state governmental entity and, where 45 applicable, the state comptroller. 46 5. The restricted permit and license applicant contribution period 47 shall recommence if a person, organization, group of persons or business 48 entity engages in activity pursuant to subdivision three of this section 49 and, where the application for a permit or license was denied and the 50 same permit or license is reapplied for within five years of the denial, 51 shall be deemed to have not ended under subdivision four of this 52 section. 53 § 2. Section 14-126 of the election law is amended by adding a new 54 subdivision 8 to read as follows: 55 8. (a) Any person, organization, group of persons, or business entity 56 as that term is used in section 14-131 of this article, who, under

S. 1721 3 1 circumstances evincing an intent to violate such laws, makes a contrib- 2 ution in contravention of section 14-131 of this article shall be 3 subject to a civil penalty not to exceed the greater of ten thousand 4 dollars or an amount equal to two hundred percent of the contribution, 5 to be recoverable in a special proceeding or civil action to be brought 6 by the state board of elections chief enforcement counsel. 7 (b) Any person who, acting as or on behalf of an officeholder, candi- 8 date, or political committee, accepts a contribution or receives a 9 transfer in contravention of section 14-131 of this article shall be 10 required to refund such contribution. 11 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 12 it shall have become a law.

Relates to permit and license applicant contributions

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