Governor Hochul presents her budget (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul has included $39.5 million for New York's Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB), a fraction of the funding the new agency requested to launch a long-anticipated public matching fund program for state campaigns.

Candidates for statewide and state legislative office now have the opportunity to receive a public match on small-dollar donations, a program meant to reduce the influence of big money donors in elections. On Wednesday, the

Voters at the polls (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

New York State's new public campaign finance program is preparing to award as much as $100 million in matching funds over the 2023-24 election cycle when the entire State Legislature will again be on the ballot.

The bi-partisan Public Campaign Finance Board, part of the State Board of Elections, is seeking $114.5 million in the next state budget to fund the new voluntary matching program during its first election cycle. Most of the funding would go toward

Then-Gov. Cuomo and Lt. Gov. Hochul (photo: Governor's Office)

Since Kathy Hochul became governor in August 2021, 47 people have given the maximum amount – $69,700 – directly to her campaign, according to campaign finance filings through October 3.

In total, the governor's campaign has brought in $46 million in her first 14 months in office. That massive sum will not be as easy to accumulate in future elections thanks to a new state campaign finance system that will lower individual contribution limits and establish a

Board of Elections reform on the table (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

A package of reforms to the way elections are run in New York State all but died last week when the Assembly adjourned without bringing the legislation to a floor vote after they passed the Senate. That includes a sweeping bill to restructure the membership and executive leadership of the New York City Board of Elections, which has been plagued by political patronage, nepotism, and mismanagement year after year.

While legislators

Big decisions to be made in the state capitol (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

A State Supreme Court judge in Niagara County struck down the state’s new campaign finance law which was based on the recommendations of a controversial state-created commission that took effect in December. The state Legislature could not give the commission the authority to make binding changes to state law, the judge

Gov. Cuomo (photo: The Governor's Office)

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Monday expanding the list of New York State agencies required to provide voter registration assistance and creating a task force to oversee implementation of the program.

While current state and federal law requires the forms to be available at the Department of Motor Vehicles and certain social service agencies, Cuomo’s

Cuomo Embraces Voting Reform Agenda, But Implementation Poses Challenges

Assembly Speaker Heastie photo: (Office of the Governor - Kevin P. Coughlin)

The long wait for recommendations from a group of Democrats charged with finding ways to improve the transparency and democratization of the state Assembly may soon be over. According to Assembly Member Gary Pretlow, co-chair of The Assembly Working Group on Operations, Participation and Transparency, the release of a 49-point report is imminent.

Pretlow told Gotham Gazette that the the committee's report will be made available after a press release is written

The Mayor, Speaker, & Council members (Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)

Attendance was notably sparse at the first public hearing of the commission charged with making recommendations around compensation for city elected officials.

Fewer than fifteen people, about half of whom were journalists, went to Brooklyn Law School on November 23 for the Quadrennial Advisory Commission hearing to collect input from the public. Four people testified to urge

Ann Ravel, Jared DeMarinis & Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, from left (photo: @NYCCFB)

Ninety-six percent of Americans are concerned by the role of money in politics. Ninety-one percent think there's nothing they can do to change it.

Federal Election Commission Chair Ann Ravel presented these statistics during her keynote address at a conference - "American Elections at the Crossroads: How do we restore

Heastie, Cuomo, Flanagan (L-R) (photo: Governor's Office via flickr)

In the Democrat-controlled Assembly, it was 122-13; in the Republican-controlled Senate, 47-12. With those votes and a Governor Andrew Cuomo signature, a final policy package brought an underwhelming end to a tumultuous 2015 legislative session in New York's capital. 

Look at ...

Sen. Daniel Squadron (photo: @DanielSquadron)

On Tuesday the state Assembly passed a bill to close the controversial LLC loophole at the center of the federal corruption cases against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Both men - a Democrat and a Republican, respectively - were recently arrested and subsequently stepped down from their powerful leadership posts. Later in the evening Tuesday, the Senate’s version of the bill to close the loophole that allows money

Gov. Cuomo & Speaker Heastie shake on an ethics deal (photo: Governor's Office via flickr)

The New York State Board of Elections opened up a floodgate in 1996, allowing cash to flow virtually unabated to political candidates. The BOE issued a ruling that allowed limited liability corporations, or LLCs, to be treated as individual donors and individuals to donate unlimited funds to candidates for state-level offices by creating multiple LLCs. Efforts to change the law in the Legislature have failed miserably and