Provides that election contributions made in cash, or in bitcoin or any other form of cryptocurrency are not matchable for purposes of public financing.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5023
SPONSOR: Jacobson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to public financing
contributions that are not matchable for purposes of public financing
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Bans cash, bitcoin and any other form of cryptocurrency as matchable
contributions for public campaign financing.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subparagraphs (xi) and (xii) of paragraph (b) of subdi-
vision 11 of section 14200-a of the Election Law and adds a new subpara-
graph (xiii), which adds cash, bitcoin, or any other form of cryptocur-
rency to the list of contributions that are not matchable for the
purpose of public campaign financing.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date, which is immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
Whenever there is a government program, safeguards are needed to protect
against fraud. This is especially true with the public campaign finance
program.
The core of the program is the matching of contributions from residents
of Assembly or Senate districts, up to $250.00 per resident. A recent
article in the New York Times found that one the largest beneficiaries
of this program was using cash donations from fake contributors.
Despite the numerous rules and regulations of the program, unscrupulous
people have found a loophole: cash contributions.
This bill will close that loophole and make it clear that contributions
made by cash or cryptocurrency are not eligible for matching funds from
the State. In order to be matchable, contributions must be made by
check, credit card, or through a vendor such as ActBlue, WinRed, • or
PayPal so that the donor is verifiable and making it harder to claim
contributions from fake donors. It will also help avoid the skirting of
campaign limits.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: A10650 - Referred to Assembly Election Law Committee
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5023
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 11, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JACOBSON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to public financing
contributions that are not matchable for purposes of public financing
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraphs (xi) and (xii) of paragraph (b) of subdivi-
2 sion 11 of section 14-200-a of the election law, as added by section 4
3 of part ZZZ of chapter 58 of the laws of 2020, are amended and a new
4 subparagraph (xiii) is added to read as follows:
5 (xi) contributions from lobbyists registered pursuant to subdivision
6 (a) of section one-c of the legislative law; [and]
7 (xii) any portion of a contribution when the aggregate contributions
8 are in excess of two hundred fifty dollars from any one contributor to
9 such participating candidate for nomination or election[.]; and
10 (xiii) contributions made in cash, or in bitcoin or any other form of
11 cryptocurrency.
12 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03168-01-5
