Session is finally over and
although we are excited to switch our focus to developing new educational
programs and updating our electronic voter guide for the upcoming primary and
general elections (http://www.vote411.org/ we
just posted the candidates for the Congressional primary so be sure to check it
out!) We are disappointed at the lack of campaign finance and ethics
reforms this session; but before we dwell on the negative, let’s take a moment
to reflect on the positives. In total the League had quite a few successes this
session:
· We
once again kept the Education Tax Credit from coming to a vote in the Assembly,
an arduous but satisfying fight.
· We
saw movement in the Assembly on some of our core voting reforms including early
voting, allowing for electronic poll books, an amendment for no-excuse absentee
voting, and the Voter Friendly Ballot Act.
· We
also helped push the LLC loophole for a vote in the Assembly where it passed
easily with support from both democrats and republicans.
· We
were also successful in raising public awareness for our core ethics and
campaign finance issues. We held many press conferences and issued countless
memos and statements pushing to see some form of ethics reforms happen before
time ran out.
To see all of the issues we worked on throughout this
session visit our website athttp://www.lwvny.org/
Even though we’ve had success moving these issues in
the Assembly, we are very disappointed the Senate did not take the opportunity
to vote on any of these common sense election law and campaign finance reforms.
It is however very satisfying to see these bills at least move in one house,
many of these bills have never even been voted out of committee!
Although the legislation we advocated for was not
signed into law, the Governor did put forward an ethics packaged aimed
primarily at independent expenditures which we have mixed feelings about. On
the one hand, the package includes some reforms that we have been fighting for
for nearly a decade. Pension forfeiture of elected officials
convicted of corruption, the timely closure of political PACs after a candidate
passes, and having political consultants register as lobbyists, are all
measures the League supports. What we don’t support is how the Governor quickly
put together this package, without including laws aimed at bigger issues such
as closing the LLC loophole and eliminating pay to play by lowering contribution
limits, and then the two houses passed the package in the dead of the night
(Senate at
2:00am and Assembly at 5:00 am). For this entire legislative
session, the League and its good government partners have held press
conferences urging the Governor to pass these reforms and put his focus on
money flowing directly to elected officials. Yes we want to take away
pensions from corrupt politicians, yes we want better disclosure for lobbyists,
yes we want consultants to be on the record as lobbyists, but we also want to
see some bigger changes. Changes that would limit and bring transparency to money in politics, changes that would strengthen JCOPE, And changes that
would actually address the underlying problems that allow politicians to
receive unlimited campaign contributions from undisclosed donors.
Are we happy? No, not really. Are we disappointed?
Well, at least we got more done this year than last year. The truth is until we
pass strong anti-corruption laws we will continue to see politicians abusing
the system for their own self gain. For now we will take advantage of the new
“Boozy Brunch” law, have a few Bloody Mary’s, and start to strategize our
approach for next session. Have a great summer everyone!
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