S178-2013 Actions

• Jan 9, 2013: REFERRED TO ELECTIONS

S178-2013 Memo

BILL NUMBER:S178

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the election law, in relation to contributions from limited
liability companies

PURPOSE:
To attribute campaign contributions of limited liability companies
(LLCs) to the individual members of the LLC in the same manner that
partnership contributions are attributed to individual partners in
current law.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill would amend subdivision 2 of section 14-120 of
the election law as added by chapter 79 of the laws of 1992 to treat
political contributions from LLCs in the same manner as contributions
from partnerships.

Section 2 of the bill specifies the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:
It is widely believed that our campaign finance laws need substantial
changes to ensure the integrity of elections in our state. This bill
does not address the broad range of issues that might be addressed in
a comprehensive reform package. However, this bill would close one
enormous loophole in the current system. Under current law, as
interpreted by the judiciary, each LLC is considered a separate
contributor and may make the maximum allowable contribution. Since a
single individual or a small group of individuals often control
multiple LLCs in Some cases a very large number of such LLCs-the
treatment of these LLCs as separate contributors effectively allows
one or more individuals to make a virtually unlimited amount of
campaign contributions.

This bill would correct this by simply attributing contributions from
LLCs to the members of the LLC in the same way the law currently
attributes contributions from partnerships to the individual partners.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2009-10: S.5277 (Squadron) - Elections, A.7069 (Kavanagh)
         - Election Law
2012:    Committee discharged and committed to Rules

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

S178-2013 Text

                      S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
  ________________________________________________________________________

                                     178

                         2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                              I N  SENATE

                                 (PREFILED)

                               January 9, 2013
                                 ___________

  Introduced  by Sen. SQUADRON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
    printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections

  AN ACT to amend the election law,  in  relation  to  contributions  from
    limited liability companies

    THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
  BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


    Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 14-120 of  the  election  law,  as
  added by chapter 79 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:

    2.  Notwithstanding subdivision one of this section, a partnership, as
  defined in section ten of the partnership law, OR  A  LIMITED  LIABILITY
  COMPANY,  AS DEFINED IN SECTION ONE HUNDRED TWO OF THE LIMITED LIABILITY
  COMPANY LAW, may be considered a separate entity  for  the  purposes  of
  this  section,  and  as  such may make contributions in the name of said
  partnership  OR  LIMITED  LIABILITY  COMPANY  without  attributing  such
  contributions  to  the  individual members of the partnership OR LIMITED
  LIABILITY COMPANY provided that any such contribution made by a partner-
  ship OR LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY to  a  candidate  or  to  a  political
  committee, shall not exceed[,] twenty-five hundred dollars. In the event
  that  such  partnership OR LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY contribution to any
  such  candidate  or  political  committee  exceeds  twenty-five  hundred
  dollars,  the  aggregate amount of such contribution shall be attributed
  to each partner OR LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY MEMBER whose share  of  the
  contribution exceeds ninety-nine dollars.
    S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.



   EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                        [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                             LBD00294-01-3