Unions, Nonprofits Team Up To Opposed Disclosure Of City Campaigns' Independent Spending
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Last year, voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal that requires the disclosure of independent spending on city campaigns, but as the plan moves forward, some unlikely partnerships have formed to fight it. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report. Unions and nonprofit groups are teaming up to fight a proposal to disclose independent spending on local political campaigns.
The alliance is a product of the City Charter Revision Commission in 2010, the proposal was overwhelmingly approved by voters last year.
The bill would require groups or individuals report to the Campaign Finance Board if they spend more than $1,000 to influence any city campaign. If they spend more than $5,000, they would also have to report who their funders are.
Unions have ramped up this kind of spending in recent city elections, flooding mailboxes with flyers. They now claim the disclosure could violate their First Amendment rights and restrict their ability to communicate with their members.
They are convincing nonprofit groups to jump on board.
"This is about impacting elections. That is something that nonprofits that have tax exempt status are not allowed to do. So it's a duplicative system," said Allison Sesso of the Human Services Council.
They say if they send out flyers urging individuals to contact their local councilmember over budget cuts they could end up having to report under the new rules.
"We currently don't endorse candidates. So just by communicating that information, it could be interpreted as a de facto endorsement of a candidate and put us in violation of the law," said Oona Chatterjee of Make the Road New York.
Supporters of the disclosure say the opposition is misguided.
"Some of the information that is out there about the impact on unions and not for profits is wrong," said Dick Dadey of the Citizens Union.
The Campaign Finance Board said it is willing to work with groups to address their concerns.
"There has been a lot of discussion over these rules over the past couple weeks," said Eric Friedman of the Campaign Finance Board. "So I just want to make sure that as we get ready for our hearing people are focusing on the core of the issue, which is making sure voters know who is spending money to influence city elections."
There is still time to weigh in on the proposal, as the Campaign Finance Board will hold a public hearing in Manhattan on Thursday.