Establishes the reputational insight and oversight transparency act; restricts investments by certain firms that receive investments from any public retirement system or pension funds.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6546
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 19, 2021
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Introduced by M. of A. KIM, MAMDANI -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
establishing the reputational insight and oversight transparency act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "reputa-
2 tional insight and oversight transparency act" or "RIOT act".
3 § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature finds, (a) in the aftermath
4 of the January 6th storming of the United States Capitol, that groups
5 who had supported lawmakers in overturning the presidential election
6 results had financial backing from private equity firms and big corpo-
7 rations, and (b) that public pension investments through the New York
8 State Common Retirement Fund and analogous pension funds in New York
9 state municipalities must account for reputational risk for the welfare
10 of New York state public employees.
11 § 3. The retirement and social security law is amended by adding a new
12 section 177-f to read as follows:
13 § 177-f. Restriction of certain investments in firms. 1. Firms in
14 which the fund invests shall not pledge any direct corporate contrib-
15 utions to independent expenditure-only political action committees
16 (super PACs), tax-exempt political organizations defined under section
17 527 of the Internal Revenue Code or tax-exempt organizations defined
18 under § 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.
19 2. Senior executives at such firms are prohibited from making individ-
20 ual contributions in excess of ten thousand dollars to the entities
21 listed in subdivision one of this section.
22 3. Senior executives at such firms who make individual contributions
23 to the entities listed in subdivision one of this section at or below
24 ten thousand dollars shall disclose such contributions to either the
25 department of audit and control, the office of the New York state comp-
26 troller or the office of the New York city comptroller, whichever
27 department or office oversees the fund.
28 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09387-02-1
