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Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb today announced the introduction of sweeping ethics and campaign finance reform legislation.

The legislation will include provisions agreed to by both the Senate and Assembly that would create an autonomous, fixed-term investigative body to oversee legislative ethics, require greater disclosure from lobbyists, restore an independent lobbying commission and provide greater information regarding legislators' outside sources of income. Additionally, the legislation would create a body within the New York State Board of Elections to enforce greater adherence to campaign finance laws.

The agreed-upon legislation revamps current ethics law by dividing the Legislative Ethics Commission into a compliance and investigative arm, and replacing the Commission on Public Integrity by a six-member board to oversee ethics compliance in the executive branch. The legislation would also reinstate an independent state commission on lobbying and increase disclosure requirements for lobbyists who have business relationships with public officials. Legislators would also be required to reveal in greater detail their sources of outside income. Current law governing judiciary ethics would remain unchanged.

"New Yorkers want change," said Sampson (D-Brooklyn). "They want us to work hard, play by the rules, and earn the salaries they pay us. We are transforming our state government with the most sweeping ethics and election law reforms Albany has ever seen. Our reforms create greater disclosure requirements for public officials, strengthen enforcement capabilities to ensure the law is upheld, and increase transparency to end the veil of secrecy that has cloaked Albany for far too long. Our responsibility is to give New York a government as good as its people. And that is just what we have done today. I want to thank Senator Eric Schneiderman, the sponsor of this bill as well as Senator Daniel Squadron and the rest of my colleagues in the Senate for their extraordinary efforts in making something that has been talked about for years a reality today."

"We who serve in government must always strive to restore the people's faith in their government," said Silver (D-Manhattan). "The legislation we are announcing today will significantly strengthen the ethics laws which apply to all public officials in this state and to those who lobby government by expanding public disclosure of outside income, strengthening oversight of our ethics and campaign finance laws and creating a truly independent oversight body for each branch of state government. I want to thank Assembly Ethics and Guidance Committee Chair Bill Magnarelli, Governmental Operations Committee Chair RoAnn Destito, Election Law Committee Chair Joan Millman and the rest of my colleagues in the Assembly, who are committed to working in a bi-partisan manner to increase transparency and accountability in the Empire State."

"I am joining Speaker Silver and Leader Sampson today to announce support for better, and stronger ethics in state government and the people serving in it," said Kolb (R,I,C-Canandaigua). "I believe it is in the best interests of our Assembly Minority Conference - and all the Legislative Conferences - to be in favor of bi-partisan ethics reform. This issue needs to be above politics and today's announcement is another step in the right direction toward the goal of New York State having the toughest ethics laws in the nation. However, the job is not done and more work remains to restore the public's trust and confidence in their state government."

The new commissions overseeing the executive and legislative branches would both take effect on July 31, 2010. The enhanced disclosure requirements would take effect January 1, 2011. The new commissions would sunset on July 31, 2014.

Joint Legislative Commission on Ethics Standards and the Legislative Office of Ethics Investigation
The ethics reform legislation introduced today would separate the Legislative Ethics Commission into two bodies.

The first, the Joint Legislative Commission on Ethics Standards (JLCES), would be the ethics compliance arm. Legislative leaders would appoint two members each, including four legislators and four non-members. This body would be responsible for conducting ethics training and education for legislative staff, issuing advisory opinions and imposing penalties for violations of the public officers' law.

The legislation would:

• Prevent individuals from serving as JLCES appointees for five years after working as legislative officer, legislative employee or lobbyist in either New York State or other jurisdictions, excluding the four legislators serving on the board;
• Require the JLCES to review all financial disclosure statements to ensure that each is complete;
• Mandate that financial disclosure statements of elected officials be posted on the JLCES website; and,
• Institute a review process whereby either random reviews would be conducted by the JLCES, or all members of a class-- legislators and legislative staff -- would be subject to review.

The second body, the Legislative Office of Ethics Investigation (LOEI) would also be governed by an eight-member board. Each legislative leader would have two appointees, and legislators and legislative staff would be prohibited from serving on the board.

This body would:

• Receive complaints about ethics violations from the public and referrals of cases for investigation from the JLCES and the Senate and Assembly Standing Committees on Ethics, and complaints about ethics violations from the public;
• Send final reports to the JLCES or the relevant standing committee on ethics; and
• Publicize reports in which cases are not dismissed or in dismissals when that decision is inconsistent with the decision of the or the relevant standing committee on ethics.

The legislation would also require the appropriate legislative oversight body to conduct a hearing on the effectiveness of these provisions within six months of the sunset date of the legislation.

Executive Ethics and Compliance Commission
Currently, the Commission on Public Integrity oversees ethics compliance by the executive branch. The agreed-upon ethics reform legislation would replace this body and create a six-member Executive Ethics and Compliance Commission (EECC), made up of two appointees each by the governor, the comptroller and the attorney general. The members would appoint an executive director, who would serve a three-year term and could only be removed by a majority vote of the board.

Additionally, this legislation would:

• Prevent individuals from serving as EECC appointees for five years after working as an executive officer, legislator, legislative officer, executive or legislative branch employee or lobbyist in either New York State or other jurisdictions;
• Require the EECC to review all financial disclosure statements to ensure that each is complete;
• Mandate that financial disclosure statements of elected officials be posted on the EECC website; and,
• Institute a review process whereby either random reviews would be conducted by the EECC, or all members of a class-- statewide elected officials, commissioners and deputy commissioners, and other state officers and employees-- would be subject to review.

Commission on Lobbying Ethics and Compliance
This legislation would restore an independent state commission on lobbying that would consist of six commissioners: two appointed by the governor and one by each of the legislative leaders. Each appointee would serve for a fixed four-year term.

The legislation would:

• Require that the chair and vice-chair be elected by the majority of members of the commission;
• Require that an executive director be appointed by a majority vote of the members for a three-year term; and
• Further define a "widely attended event" as a gathering related to the attendee's duties or responsibilities in which at least 25 people are invited or expected to attend, not including individuals from the government entity in which the public officer serves; and
• Add new language to define "nominal food and beverages" as that valued under $10.

Financial Disclosure
This bill would increase financial disclosure requirements by splitting an existing category into two new categories on financial disclosure forms. The first would cover amounts between $250,000 and $1 million; the other would cover amounts of $1 million or more.

Additionally, the legislation would:

• Remove the provisions of current law that make categories of value confidential;
• Require additional disclosure with respect to consulting services, business before the state and licensed professions; and
• Clarify language to indicate that deferred compensation plans must be disclosed.

Ethics Reports
Under this legislation, the Committee on Open Government would prepare an annual report summarizing the actions of the JLCES, LOEI, EECC, the State Commission on Lobbying and the Senate and Assembly Standing Committees on Ethics.

Campaign Finance
To promote increased enforcement of campaign finance reform laws, the legislation creates an enforcement unit within the New York State Board of Elections (BOE) and mandates that at least 35 percent of the board's annual budget be dedicated to the unit. Additionally, it expands the jurisdiction of the enforcement unit and promotes the independence of the enforcement counsel by making the office a four-year term. The legislation also promotes compliance with campaign finance laws by increasing current penalties and creating new penalties for violations, and requires greater disclosure and transparency of campaign finance information.

The legislation would:

• Require three of the four BOE commissioners to vote to stop an investigation by the enforcement counsel, rather than requiring, as current law does, three votes to begin an investigation;
• Mandate that all votes to stop an investigation or to act on the recommendation of the enforcement counsel after an investigation occur in public;
• Add an additional campaign finance filing for candidates and political committees during the legislative session and increase the penalty for failure to file from $500 to $1,000;
• Create a substantial penalty of up to $10,000 for the failure to file required statements three or more times in an election cycle;
• Create a new penalty for accepting an excess contribution. In addition to returning the excess, a candidate or committee could be fined an amount equal to two times the excess plus a civil penalty up to $10,000;
• Define the term "independent expenditures" and require that political communications identify who paid for communications financed by such "independent expenditures" and expose violators to fines of up to $1,000 or the cost of the independent expenditure, whichever is greater;
• Mandate that independent expenditures on communications opposing or supporting a candidate or ballot initiative in excess of $1,000 be subject to the same filing requirements currently in place for candidates and political committees;
• Prohibit a person, campaign committee or political party from falsely identifying the source of a political communication; and
• Require itemization of candidate and political committee credit card payments and other like payments.