Unions Spared in Campaign Finance Bill

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council are introducing legislation to revamp the campaign finance system that would ban donations from businesses and severely curtail donations from entities that do work with the city. But the legislation does nothing to cut off the influence of one special interest group: unions.

While backers say the new legislation will give New York City the strongest campaign finance laws in the country, some are already saying it carves out an unfair exemption for labor groups, which give large sums of money to council candidates.

City Council Member Vincent Ignizio, a Republican of Staten Island, said it was not "equitable" to give one interest group an advantage. "I don't think this bill will pass judicial scrutiny," he said. "I think it's one of those attempts to make the system better, but I think ultimately it puts some classes of people at a disadvantage to others."

Leaders with some of the watchdog groups that praised the legislation noted that excluding unions was a compromise tolerated to get the other pay-to-play measures passed. "Labor has significant influence in the council," a lawyer for the New York Public Interest Research Group, Gene Russianoff, said. "From our point of view, the bill is a compromise. But, on balance, it's a huge improvement."

The president of the Citizens Union, Dick Dadey, also lauded the legislation as historic, but said: "This legislation still carves out a special place for union contributions and allows a significant special interest to still hold sway over campaign giving."

Mr. Bloomberg and the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, painted the bill as a landmark measure that will rid government of special interests, save taxpayers money, and make New York a model.

The legislation includes several big-ticket items. It expands the existing ban on corporate contributions to limited liability corporations and limited liability partnerships and it caps contributions for entities that have at least $100,000 worth of business with the city at $250 for council races, $320 for borough races, and $400 for citywide elections. That is far lower than the standard limits, which are $2,950, $3,850, and $4,950 for council, borough, and citywide elections, respectively.

In addition to those who do business with the city, that cap will apply to lobbyists, property owners with pending land use applications, and bond underwriters. Some say restrictions — whether on business or unions — are an unfair restriction of First Amendment rights.

Ms. Quinn said the "the point of the bill is, among other things, to try to make sure people get treated the same way." If a union brings forward a land-use issue or bids on a city contract, it will have to abide by the same campaign finance restrictions, she said.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said Mr. Bloomberg wanted the restrictions for the unions but that the issue was a nonstarter with the council.

The executive vice president of politics and legislation at Local 1199, the state's biggest health care union, Patrick Gaspard, said he was pleased with the bill. The union "represents thousands of New Yorkers who simply cannot afford to make political contributions to candidates on their own, but who need to express their stake in government," he said in a statement.

Other than the donation restrictions, the legislation will increase transparency by requiring anyone who solicits money for a candidate to be publicly reported. It also increases the criteria for candidates who have token competition to qualify for public money. And it ups the public match for the first $175 of contributions to $6 for every $1 raised from the $4 currently on the books. Restricted contributions will not be eligible for any match.

The chairman of the Campaign Finance Board, Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., who last week expressed concerns that the bill would not go far enough, praised the final version.

"New York City was falling behind Connecticut and New Jersey and now they've leapfrogged over them to have the best public control of contributions of people who do business with the city," he said.

Still, the CFB has contended in the past that the city should expand its bans and restrictions on organizations, including unions.

When asked whether he was concerned that unions were left out of the new legislation, Mr. Schwarz said: "That is an issue for tomorrow."

Meanwhile, when asked why there were no restrictions on spending for self-financed candidates, Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, hit a lighter note. "I suggest that before anyone goes into office, first go out and become a billionaire," he joked. "It does make it a lot easier."