Thursday, December 8, 2016

New City Council tweeding effort underway

David Greenfield
From the Daily News:

Just in time for the 2017 election cycle, the City Council is set to scale back oversight of its own members’ cash infusions from New York City’s taxpayer-backed campaign fund matching program.

They must not get away with it.

The program, intended to amplify the voices of small-fry donors in local elections, offers a 6-to-1 match for every dollar contributed by city residents. The first $175 is matchable, meaning a maximum grant of $1,050. In 2013 elections, the matches totaled $33 million.

To ensure that the private contributions that trigger public support are on the up and up, donors are simply asked to certify that their contributions are kosher under law.

Giving a check? Sign a card that says “I understand that State law requires that a contribution be in my name and be from my own funds.”

Are you a city contractor or lobbyist, thereby barred from giving more than $250 to a Council candidate and $400 for mayor? Spell it out.

That’s it — hardly a lie-detector test, but an important caution against illegal straw donations, like those that hobbled former Controller John Liu’s 2013 mayoral bid , and against corrupting, oversized contributions.

Yet here come Councilmen David Greenfield and Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn, with legislation, popular in a self-serving Council, that would eliminate the requirement for most contributions by check. And credit card. And text message. And many by money order.

Where the forms would still be required — for instance, for contributions made in cash — the measure would give campaigns authority to complete or correct the paperwork on donors’ behalf.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey... Chase Manhattan Bank won't take cash as payment for a credit card bill without some form of ID ... how are these candidates going to make cash transactions with no records for oversight??

Anonymous said...

Why don't we just hand the politicians a blank check and be done with it.

Anonymous said...

1. Cancel the Sanctuary City status.

2. Get rid of this matching fund nonsense.

Make NYC Great Again! ;)

DJT Jr. for Mayor!

Anonymous said...

Still wondering what ever happened to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines that John (Son-of-a-Ban-Thief) Liu was supposed to pay.

Last I recall he was claiming racism (Bill Thompson was also given about the same and paid).

For crying out loud the money comes out of campaign funds, it's not even a personal fine. What kind of scumbag litters his own city and then walks away from fines?

Pay up deadbeat!

Anonymous said...

> And even worse for bypassing the government operations committee that Council rules say oversees the Campaign Finance Board — but whose chair, Ben Kallos of Manhattan, has publicly expressed concern about undermining the matching system’s integrity.

Despicable.

Anonymous said...

"Why don't we just hand the politicians a blank check and be done with it."

We already do!!!