On April 3, Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers passed legislation to enact the state budget for the 2021 fiscal year.

The enacted legislation includes provisions for campaign finance reform and nonprofit disclosures.

Effective January 1, 2021, Senate Bill 7505 requires charitable organizations to file annual financial reports and funding disclosures with the Department of State to be published on their website for public transparency.

The governor also signed Senate Bill 7508 establishing a statewide public campaign financing system.

Senate Bill 7508 lowers contribution limits a candidate may accept while participating in the public funding system.

Under Senate Bill 7508, a candidate for statewide office may accept a contribution of $18,000 dollars in the aggregate.

The bill also sets contribution limits for state senators and assembly members to $10,000 and $6,000, respectively.

Contribution limits are divided equally among the primary and general elections in an election cycle.

Senate Bill 7508 takes effect on November 9, 2022, and applies to participants in the primary and general elections to be held in 2024.

The Office of the County Attorney announced emergency regulations extending the deadline for filing first quarter lobbyist reports.

This comes in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and current state of emergency.

The deadline for lobbyist reports covering activity for the period of January 1 to March 31 is extended until May 15.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced the suspension of the Lobbying Random Audit Program to avoid unnecessary administrative burden during the COVID-19 emergency.

Effective immediately, no new audits will be initiated by JCOPE until further notice.

Complying with ongoing audits is voluntary until the commission resumes the audit program.

Any questions regarding this policy should be emailed to helpdesk@jcope.ny.gov, with ‘Audit’ in the subject line.

Due to the COVID-19 emergency, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced a deadline extension for all lobbying filings until April 15.

The extension includes bimonthly reports covering activity for the reporting period of January to February 2020.

JCOPE also announced temporary procedures regarding hand delivery of report filings and checks.

Until further notice, visitors are not allowed into the JCOPE offices. Beginning April 15, JCOPE will accept hand delivery of lobbying filings.

However, the commission is not accepting hand delivery of checks until further notice.

Instead, any checks should be submitted either by mail or by submitting the filing through the online Lobbying Application using a credit card to pay the submission fee.

If neither option is possible, JCOPE asks filers to hold all checks for hand delivery until further notice.

On March 28, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.12 to move elections scheduled for April 28 to June 23 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The postponement affects the presidential primary and special elections including:

• The 37th Congressional District
• The 50th Senate District
• The 12th, 31st, and 136th Assembly Districts

The executive order also reschedules a special election for Brooklyn City Council 37th District to June 23.

The New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced an extension for the submission of bimonthly lobbyist activity reports.

This will allow the due date for the January to February reporting period to extend until Tuesday, March 31.

JCOPE extended the deadline due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.

Effective immediately, JCOPE also suspended hand-delivery of paper filings to their Albany office until March 31.

As an alternative, filers may submit filings using the online filing system or via regular mail, provided filers use a sponge to seal the envelope.

This extension does not affect clients of lobbyists as statutory filings for client semiannual reports are not due until July 15.

On March 15, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the postponement of the Queens Special Election for Borough President scheduled for March 24.

Mayor de Blasio postponed the special election due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.

No new date has been set and acting Borough President Sharon Lee will continue her tenure until the special election is rescheduled.

On March 16, the Legislature announced the postponement of the session until later this week due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.

Lawmakers hope to resume the session on Wednesday to take action on coronavirus legislation and the state budget.

This will not affect lobbyist reporting.

On March 12, Niagara County Supreme Court Judge Boniello struck down changes to the state’s election laws recommended by the Campaign Finance Reform Commission.

The commission’s recommendations included the creation of a voluntary public campaign finance system.

Additionally, it recommended setting new contribution limits to candidates for state public office.

The court found the Legislature improperly delegated legislative action powers to the commission, which is a function reserved solely to the Legislature under the state’s constitution.

The court noted the recommendations of the commission did not follow proper procedure as mandated by the constitution.

Historically, this is followed by lawmakers when it became law without further action by the Legislature.

After the ruling, lawmakers may accept and pass the commission’s recommendations into law by statute.

The New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) announced their policy on COVID-19 and lobbying filings.

Upon request, JCOPE will grant reasonable extensions to filers who may not be able to meet the upcoming filing deadline due to a COVID-19 issue.

If a filer misses the deadline due to COVID-19 related issues, please contact the JCOPE help desk at:

• • • (518) 408-3976
    • helpdesk@jcope.ny.gov

Please contact as soon as possible to discuss a reasonable accommodation.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has set April 28 as the date for a special election for the 27th U.S. Congressional District, meaning the election will coincide with the state’s presidential primary election.

The New York Republican Party sued to have the election scheduled for an earlier date, but lost in the state Supreme Court.

The seat was vacated when Congressman Chris Collins, a Buffalo Republican, resigned after pleading guilty to insider trading.

State party leaders will pick the nominees for the special election.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has scheduled a special election to be held on March 24 for Queens borough president.

The seat became vacant when President Melinda Katz, a Democrat from Forest Hills, resigned to become Queens District Attorney.

On December 19, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics launched the system-generated Client Semiannual Report (CSA) feature on the state’s online Lobbying Application system.

Contractual clients who lobby on their own behalf and do not utilize the services of any retained lobbyists are not required to file CSA reports.

Instead, system-generated CSA reports will be created with information directly imported from filed lobbyist bimonthly reports covering the applicable reporting period.

The system will not create a system-generated CSA if an Employed Principal Lobbyist has submitted a CSA report for the January to June reporting period.

Also, contractual clients are still required to disclose sources of funding or indicate source of funding reporting is not required.

No filing fee is required for system-generated CSA reports except to add retained lobbyist information.

Adding retained lobbyists requires a $50 filing fee and filing CSA reports going forward.

The campaign finance overhaul unveiled in New York last month by the Campaign Finance Reform Commission is now law.

This happened automatically when the Legislature missed a December 22 deadline to convene and vote to block or amend the proposal.

The changes include:

• Steep drops in state contribution limits
• Stricter ballot qualification criteria
• The creation of a new regulatory agency called the Public Campaign Finance Board
• Public financing of elections

Many of the new rules become effective at the start of the new year.

However, the public financing will not kick in until 2026.