Int. No. 564-A

By Council Members DeBlasio, Comrie, Palma, Perkins, Avella, Brewer, Clarke, Fidler, Gennaro, Gentile, James, Jennings, Koppell, Martinez, McMahon, Nelson, Recchia Jr., Rivera, Seabrook, Sears, Stewart, Weprin, Foster, Katz, Quinn, Addabbo Jr., Gerson, Barron, Boyland, Gonzalez and The Public Advocate (Ms. Gotbaum)

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the definition of campaign contribution under the Campaign Finance Law.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

                     Section 1.  Section 3-702 of the administrative code of the City of New York is amended and a new subdivision 14 is added to such section to read as follows:

                     14.  The term "labor organization" shall mean any organization including any local, state, district council, joint council or national organization which exists and is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid or protection.  For purposes of this section a labor organization shall also include its political committee(s).

                     §2.  Paragraph f of subdivision 1 of section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

(f) not accept and his or her principal committee must not accept, either directly or by transfer, any contribution or contributions from any one individual, partnership, political committee, labor organization or other entity for all covered elections held in the same calendar year in which he or she is a participating candidate which in the aggregate: (i) for the office of mayor, public advocate or comptroller, shall exceed four thousand five hundred dollars, or (ii) for borough president, shall exceed three thousand five hundred dollars, or (iii) for member of the city council, shall exceed two thousand five hundred dollars; provided that a participating candidate and his or her principal committee may accept additional contributions which do not exceed one half the amount of the applicable limitation for any run-off primary election, additional day for voting held pursuant to section 3-108 of the New York state election law, special election to fill a vacancy, run-off special election to fill a vacancy, delayed or otherwise postponed election, or election held pursuant to court order which is a covered election and in which the candidate seeks nomination for election or election; and provided further that for the purposes of this paragraph, contributions made by different labor organizations shall not be aggregated and shall not be subject to the contribution limit applicable to any one contributor that is set forth in this paragraph if those labor organizations make contributions from different accounts, maintain separate accounts with different signatories, do not share a majority of members of their governing boards, and do not share a majority of the officers of their governing boards; and provided further that if state law prescribes a contribution limitation of a lesser amount, this paragraph shall not be deemed to authorize acceptance of a contribution in excess of such lesser amount. The maximum contributions set forth in this paragraph shall be adjusted in accordance with subdivision seven of this section;

                     §3.  Section 2 of this local law shall not have any effect on any adjustments made prior to the effective date of this law pursuant to subdivision 7 of section 3-703 of the administrative code. 

                     §4.  The provisions of this section shall govern all proceedings before the board and be effective upon enactment.