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Hochul rejects changes to NY public campaign financing program
By
Jon Campbell
Published Dec 27, 2023
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By
Jon Campbell
Published Dec 27, 2023
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New York state won’t be making big changes to its brand new system for publicly financing political campaigns.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have altered the nascent program, which is matching political donations of up to $250 to state-level candidates with public funds at rates of up to 12-to-1 for the first time this election cycle.
State lawmakers narrowly approved the bill in June, and it would have made the first $250 of larger political contributions eligible for a public match. The proposal would have also made it tougher for candidates to qualify for the taxpayer-funded program, increasing the number of donors campaigns would need to court to meet the threshold.
But good-government advocates pushed back, arguing that the changes would have diluted the public fund matching program’s entire purpose: to bolster the influence of a wider array of small donors, rather than deep-pocketed ones.
Hochul ultimately agreed and rejected the bill outright.
“Signing this bill would effectively reduce the impact of small donors on elections, in direct contravention of the purpose for which the [public campaign finance program] was originally adopted,” Hochul wrote in a veto message.
The public fund matching program, which is partly modeled after New York City’s existing system, matches contributions of up to $250 at a 6-to-1 rate for qualifying statewide candidates. That means a $250 donation to a gubernatorial candidate, for example, would receive $1,500 in matching funds.
For state Senate and Assembly candidates, the match varies. The first $50 is matched at a 12-to-1 rate; the next $100 at 9-to-1; and the following $100 at 8-to-1. That means a $250 contribution would be matched by $2,300 in additional funds.
In order to qualify for the program, candidates have to raise a minimum amount of money from a certain number of in-district donors.
For Assembly candidates, for example, those numbers are $6,000 and 145 donors. The bill Hochul vetoed would have upped that threshold to $12,000 and 145 donors.
All 213 state legislative seats are on the ballot next year.
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new york city
Kathy Hochul
new york state
Politics
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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