New Report: Contributions by Regulated Industries Block Needed Legislation Benefiting Consumers, Environment

New Report: Contributions by Regulated Industries Block Needed Legislation Benefiting Consumers, Environment

Analysis Shows Public Financing Would Remove “Pay-to-Play” Influence of Special Interests in New York

Bills on Health Care, Ticket Scalping, Rent Regulation, Wetlands at Issue

Albany – As the State Senate begins a process of seeking public comment on the shape of public financing elections legislation this week, Citizen Action of New York released a new report today finding that campaign contributions from corporate interests are used to block legislation that would help consumers, tenants and the environment. The report, New Yorkers Pay When Big Money Plays: The Case for Public Financing of Elections, analyzes five bills relating to health care, the environment, rent regulation and ticket scalping, and shows that the nonprofits in favor of passing this common sense legislation were outspent many times over by industries that would be regulated by the legislation.

Citizen Action called on the State Assembly and Senate to pass public financing of elections for state legislature and statewide offices in New York in order to give an alternative to the state’s “pay-to-play” system where wealthy corporate interests can continually block legislation that is in the public interest.

This week starts the public input process for three public financing bill drafts that the State Senate has posted on their new website, http://www.nysenate.gov/legislation and http://campaignfinanceideas.nysenate.gov. New Yorkers will have an opportunity to show their support for public financing at the State Senate’s public hearing on public financing of elections on in Rochester on May 28th and again in Albany on June 3rd.

“New Yorkers can no longer afford not to pass public financing of elections for statewide offices,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “The current campaign finance system gives too much control over how public policy is made in this state to big money campaign contributors. We need a system that provides transparency and accountability to the voters – public financing of elections is that system.”

The report analyzes campaign contributions made by companies and organizations that are impacted by five selected bills and compares those contributions with the contributions made by consumer or environmental groups that also lobbied on that bill. In each case, the consumer and environmental groups lobbying on the bill were overwhelmingly outspent by the companies that would be regulated by that bill, by 9 to 1 and often more.

“The research shows that big money interests have far too much influence in the Capitol,” said Bob Cohen, Citizen Action Policy Director. “It’s time that we end the institutionalized barriers to common sense legislation that would help average New Yorkers.”

The report found that big business and trade organizations vastly outspent consumer and environmental groups who lobbied on the same bills. The findings include the following:

• For a bill that would lead to discounts on prescription drugs, 99.99% of the $1,093,348 in campaign contributions came from the drug companies, drug stores and their trade associations.

• 94% of the $105,784 in contributions from entities that lobbied on a bill that would regulate how much health insurance companies can increase their rates came from health insurers. (Citizen Action, the only consumer group that made campaign contributions, gave the remaining 6%.)

• A bill that would allow the state to regulate and protect smaller parcels of freshwater wetlands passed the Assembly last year and again this year, but has not passed the Senate. Of the $310,441 in campaign contributions, 92% was given by real estate interests and builders.

• In the case of a bill that would reverse a state law allowing landlords to avoid rent regulation if an apartment rents for more than $2000 and becomes vacant, which would keep thousands of apartments affordable and limit tenant intimidation, we found that 99.8% or $594,365 in campaign contributions came from three organizations associated with the real estate industry.

• Finally, in the case of a bill that was passed in 2007 over consumer objections that removed caps on reseller markups of sports and concert tickets, all contributions, $451,213, came from the entertainment industry that was in favor of the law.

“The time to finally end the grip of corporate interests on our laws in New York is now,” added Jessica Wisneski, Citizen Action Executive Director. “The New York State Legislature must make public financing of elections a top priority and pass it during this year’s legislative session.”

In 2008, the Assembly passed A11507, which would create a strong public financing system that would give candidates four public dollars for every dollar raised in contributions of $250 or less from New York State residents. Also in 2008, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith sponsored a full public financing bill in the State Senate (S7175) that is modeled on a law passed by Connecticut in 2005 that the New York Times called “an instant model for other statehouses.”

Citizen Action of New York is a statewide membership organization that fights for social, racial, economic and environmental justice. The full report is available at www.votersnotdonors.org and www.citizenactionny.org.

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