ALBANY – New York’s Attorney General is hoping to create better transparencies in election financing. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says he will begin requiring certain nonprofit groups that offer funding for state races to disclose their donors.
Schneiderman is targeting 501-c-4 nonprofit groups, including federally active groups like Americans for Prosperity, which are already regulated by his office if they have substantial operations in the state.
According to a proposed rule change filed Tuesday, the attorney general’s office would expand annual filing requirements to include the amount of money used for elections, and what percentage of an organization’s overall budget it represents. A group spending over $10,000 in a given year on elections for state and local offices or on a state or local ballot issue would have to reveal anyone who gives more than $100. The proposed rule also defines election spending more broadly than recent rules adopted by the State Board of Elections.
Schneiderman’s proposed rules will be published Dec. 26 and are subject to public comment through March. An aid says the changes do not require a vote of the legislature because they fall within the attorney general’s existing regulatory authority.
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