New York State\u2019s campaign financing system has been\nnotorious \u2013 sky-high contributions that allow the wealthy and powerful to legally\ndonate over $100,000; ineffective enforcement; loopholes galore and inadequate\ndisclosures. The result? Scandals. Most recently the convictions of big donors\nand top-ranking state officials in an incredible scheme that rigged government\ncontracts for big campaign donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lousy system is not something new \u2013 for decades, blue\nribbon commissions, federal prosecutors, and experts have roundly criticized\nNew York\u2019s campaign financing practices and its anemic laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for decades Governors and state lawmakers have pledged\nto fix the system, only to complain that partisan gridlock blocked necessary\nreforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York City\u2019s experience, on the other hand, was\ndifferent. In the 1980s, it too\nexperienced stunning levels of corruption. \nBut a politically unified city government coupled with public outrage yielded\nthe creation of a system of public financing that shifted the emphasis away\nfrom raising money from special interests who write big checks to getting small\ndonations that are amplified by public matching funds. New York City\u2019s program is now considered a\nmodel for the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the 2018 election, Democrats took firm control of the\nstate government when they won a working majority of seats in the state senate. Governor Cuomo had regularly advanced\nlegislation to create a voluntary system of public financing modeled on the New\nYork City program. The new Democratic Senate\nmajority had also pledged to support establishing a New York City-style\nsystem. The Assembly had approved\nlegislation creating a New York City-style system regularly for years since the\n1980s. Reform seemed like a done deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But something happened. \nDemocrats\u2019 great enthusiasm for public financing evaporated during the\nfirst half of the legislative session. \nEventually, instead of directly voting to adopt a New York City-style\nsystem, the governor and the legislative leaders established a commission\nempowered to create a public financing system in New York State. The legislation was approved at the end of\nMarch and this new Commission was charged with releasing its plan by December 1st<\/sup>\nof this year, giving the group only eight months to get its work completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the games continued. \nThe leaders made no appointments to the commission until early July,\nthus cutting the timetable to a mere five months. The commission had no staff, few resources\nand couldn\u2019t pull off its first meeting until late August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the timetable was cut to 3 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commission then wasted its time publicly debating\nwhether to curtail the involvement of minor parties in elections. The commission is now down to a few precious\nweeks to get its monumental work completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You would think that under the circumstances the Commission\nwould focus on a program that has had a three-decade track record of success. A program that already exists in New York\nState. The commission could then focus\non how best to scale it up to a statewide program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you would be\nwrong.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, the commission seems to want to develop a system\nvery different from New York City\u2019s. At\nits most recent meeting, the commission approved an outline of a program that would\ndiverge from the New York City model by prohibiting public financing matches\nfor out-of-district. Instead, in-district\ncontributions would be matched up to $250 according to a tier of ratios: the\nfirst $50 at 12:1, the next $100 at 9:1, and the next $100 at 8:1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This untried, complicated system is being cooked up with\nless than three weeks to go. It almost\nseems like they are doing all they can to develop a program too flawed to\nsucceed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This has happened before. \nIn 2014, the governor rushed through a campaign financing change that\ncovered only the Comptroller\u2019s race. The program was so flawed that the Comptroller\ndid not choose to participate and his opponent couldn\u2019t meet the complicated\nstandards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is the commission operating this way? Since so much of what they do is done in\nsecret, it\u2019s hard to know. But it\u2019s safe\nto say that the governor and the legislative leaders are comfortable with the\nways things are going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Yorkers, on the other hand, should not be. New York\u2019s corrupt campaign financing system\nneeds drastic change. If the unelected commission\nfails to make it happen, New Yorkers should look to the actions of the governor\nand the legislature before, during, and after the commission acts. It is their leadership that should be under\nscrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New York State\u2019s campaign financing system has been notorious \u2013 sky-high contributions that allow the wealthy and powerful to legally donate over $100,000; ineffective enforcement; loopholes galore and inadequate disclosures. The result? Scandals. Most recently the convictions of big donors and top-ranking state officials in an incredible scheme that rigged government contracts for big campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}