ALBANY, N.Y. - Assembly members seek to enforce campaign finance laws and increase transparency by making it a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail for chronically failing to disclose campaign donations and expenses.
Assembly Members Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville), Steve McLaughlin (R,C-Melrose), and Tony Jordan (R,C,I-Jackson) today announced they will introduce new "Three Strikes and You're in Jail" legislation to strengthen and help enforce existing New York's campaign finance laws by making it a crime for any candidate to repeatedly fail to file campaign finance disclosure reports as required by law.
The bill would make it a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail for failing to disclose campaign donations and expenses after failing to report three in a timely manner three times after receiving three 30-day warnings. The bill would move penalties for repeat offenders from being a civil offense to a criminal offense.
The legislation holds the candidates, not campaign treasurers, ultimately criminally responsible for being a repeat campaign finance scofflaw, since after three times the buck should stop with the person whose name is on the ballot.
The bill comes after former Senator Pedro Espada Jr., was hit with fines and pled guilty to tax fraud.
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