Int. No. 140
By the Public Advocate (Mr. Green) and Council Members Michels and Robinson; also Council Members Fisher, Leffler, Perkins and Freed.
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the City of New York to set a maximum contribution of $2,000 for all candidates participating in the campaign finance program and to change the matching formula to 2 to 1 for each contribution up to $500.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section one. Subdivision 3 of section 3-702 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by local law 69 of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
3. The term "matchable contribution" shall mean (i) a contribution, (ii) contributions or (iii) a portion of a contribution or contributions, not greater than [one thousand] five hundred dollars for all covered elections held in the same calendar year, other than special elections, made by a natural person resident in the city of New York to a participating candidate which has been reported in full to the campaign finance board in accordance with subdivision six of section 3-703 by the candidate's principal committee and has been contributed on or before December thirty-first in the year of such election that may be matched by public funds in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. A loan may not be treated as a matchable contribution. The following contributions are not matchable:
(a) in-kind contributions of property, goods, or services;
(b) contributions in the form of the purchase price paid for an item with significant intrinsic and enduring value; and
(c) contributions in the form of the purchase price paid for or otherwise induced by a chance to participate in a raffle, lottery, or a similar drawing for valuable prizes.
In a special election to fill a vacancy a matchable contribution shall not be greater than [five hundred] two hundred fifty dollars per contributor.
§2. Paragraph (f) of subdivision 1 of section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by local law 69 of 1990 and local law 68 of 1993, is amended to read as follows:
(f) not accept and his or her principal committee and any other political committee authorized by such candidate must not accept, either directly or by transfer, any contribution or contributions from any one individual, corporation, partnership, political committee, employee 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 [six] two thousand [five hundred] dollars[, or (ii) for borough president, shall exceed five thousand dollars, or, (iii) for member of the city council, shall exceed three thousand dollars]; provided that a candidate and his or her authorized committees 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 election law, special election to fill a vacancy, 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 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. Any contribution made prior to the effective date of this chapter shall not be deemed a matchable contribution for purposes of this chapter for any election held in the year nineteen hundred ninety or thereafter];
§3. Subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of Section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by local law number 69 of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
(ii) [president of the city council] public advocate and comptroller, not less than one hundred thousand dollars in matchable contributions of ten dollars or more including at least five hundred matchable contributions.
§4. Subdivision 7 of section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York is repealed.
§5. Subdivisions eight, nine, ten and eleven, as amended by local law 69 of 1990, and subdivision twelve, as added by local law 37 of 1994, of Section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York are renumbered as subdivisions seven, eight, nine, ten and eleven, respectively.
§6. Subdivision 2 of section 3-705 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by local law 69 of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
2. If the threshold for eligibility is met, the participating candidate's principal committee shall receive payment for qualified campaign expenditures of [one dollar] two dollars for each one dollar of matchable contributions, obtained and reported to the campaign finance board in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, but in no case shall such principal committee receive in public funds an amount exceeding one-half of the expenditure limitation provided in subdivision one of section 3-706 for the office for which such candidate seeks nomination for election or election or forty thousand dollars in the case of candidates for city council. No funds shall be provided pursuant to this subdivision with respect to any covered election specified in subdivision five of this section.
§7. Contributions accepted prior to the effective date of this law that exceed the contribution limit set forth under paragraph (f) of subdivision 1 of section 3-703 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by section one of this local law, shall be returned.
§8. This local law shall take effect as of February 5, 1998.