N.Y. Legislative Law 1-J – Semi-annual reports
§ 1-j. Semi-annual reports. (a) Semi-annual reports shall be filed by any client retaining, employing or designating a lobbyist or lobbyists, whether or not any such lobbyist was required to file a bi-monthly report, if such client reasonably anticipates that during the year such client will expend or incur an amount in excess of five thousand dollars of combined reportable compensation and expenses, as provided in paragraph five of subdivision (c) of this section, for the purposes of lobbying.
Terms Used In N.Y. Legislative Law 1-J
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- client: shall mean every person or organization who retains, employs or designates any person or organization to carry on lobbying activities on behalf of such client. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- commission: shall mean the commission on ethics and lobbying in government created by § 94 of the executive law. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- compensation: shall mean any salary, fee, gift, payment, benefit, loan, advance or any other thing of value paid, owed, given or promised to the lobbyist by the client for lobbying but shall not include contributions reportable pursuant to Article 14 of the election law. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- expenses: shall mean any expenditures incurred by or reimbursed to the lobbyist for lobbying but shall not include contributions reportable pursuant to Article 14 of the election law. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- governmental procurement: shall mean : (i) the public announcement, public notice, or public communication to any potential vendor of a determination of need for a procurement, which shall include, but not be limited to, the public notification of the specifications, bid documents, request for proposals, or evaluation criteria for a procurement contract, (ii) solicitation for a procurement contract, (iii) evaluation of a procurement contract, (iv) award, approval, denial or disapproval of a procurement contract, or (v) approval or denial of an assignment, amendment (other than amendments that are authorized and payable under the terms of the procurement contract as it was finally awarded or approved by the comptroller, as applicable), renewal or extension of a procurement contract, or any other material change in the procurement contract resulting in a financial benefit to the offerer. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- lobbying activities: shall mean and include any attempt to influence:
(i) the passage or defeat of any legislation or resolution by either house of the state legislature including but not limited to the introduction or intended introduction of such legislation or resolution or approval or disapproval of any legislation by the governor;
(ii) the adoption, issuance, rescission, modification or terms of a gubernatorial executive order;
(iii) the adoption or rejection of any rule or regulation having the force and effect of law by a state agency;
(iv) the outcome of any rate making proceeding by a state agency;
(v) any determination: (A) by a public official, or by a person or entity working in cooperation with a public official related to a governmental procurement, or (B) by an officer or employee of the unified court system, or by a person or entity working in cooperation with an officer or employee of the unified court system related to a governmental procurement;
(vi) the approval, disapproval, implementation or administration of tribal-state compacts, memoranda of understanding, or any other tribal-state agreements and any other state actions related to Class III gaming as provided in 25 U. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C - lobbyist: shall mean every person or organization retained, employed or designated by any client to engage in lobbying. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- local legislative body: shall mean the board of supervisors, board of aldermen, common council, council, commission, town board, board of trustees or other elective governing board or body of a municipality now or hereafter vested by state statute, charter or other law with jurisdiction to initiate and adopt local laws, ordinances and budgets, whether or not such local laws, ordinances or budgets require approval of the elective chief executive officer or other official or body to become effective. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- municipal agency: shall mean : (i) any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council, committee or officer of a municipality, whether permanent or temporary; or (ii) an industrial development agency, located in a jurisdictional subdivision of the state with a population of more than fifty thousand, or local public benefit corporation, as that term is defined in § 66 of the general construction law. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- municipality: shall mean any jurisdictional subdivision of the state, including but not limited to counties, cities, towns, villages, improvement districts and special districts, with a population of more than five thousand, and industrial development agencies in jurisdictional subdivisions with a population of more than five thousand; and public authorities, and public corporations. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- organization: shall mean any corporation, company, foundation, association, college as defined by § 2 of the education law, labor organization, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, state agency or public corporation. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- reportable business relationship: shall mean a relationship in which compensation is paid by a lobbyist or by a client of a lobbyist, in exchange for any goods, services or anything of value, the total value of which is in excess of one thousand dollars annually, to be performed or provided by or intended to be performed or provided by (i) any statewide elected official, state officer, state employee, member of the legislature or legislative employee, or (ii) any entity in which the lobbyist or the client of a lobbyist knows or has reason to know the statewide elected official, state officer, state employee, member of the legislature or legislative employee is a proprietor, partner, director, officer or manager, or owns or controls ten percent or more of the stock of such entity (or one percent in the case of a corporation whose stock is regularly traded on an established securities exchange). See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- state agency: shall mean any department, board, bureau, commission, division, office, council, committee or officer of the state, whether permanent or temporary, or a public benefit corporation or public authority at least one of whose members is appointed by the governor, authorized by law to make rules or to make final decisions in adjudicatory proceedings but shall not include the judicial branch or agencies created by interstate compact or international agreement. See N.Y. Legislative Law 1-C
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
(b) Such report shall be filed with the commission, on forms supplied by the commission, by the fifteenth day of July of the year and by the fifteenth day of January next following the year for which such report is made and shall contain:
(1) the name, address and telephone number of the client;
(2) the name, address and telephone number of each lobbyist retained, employed or designated by such client;
(3) the following information on which each lobbyist retained, employed or designated by such client has lobbied, and on which such client has lobbied: (i) a description of the general subject or subjects, (ii) the legislative bill numbers of any bills, (iii) the numbers or subject matter (if there are no numbers) of gubernatorial executive orders or executive orders issued by the chief executive officer of a municipality, (iv) the subject matter of and tribes involved in tribal-state compacts, memoranda of understanding, or any other state-tribal agreements and any state actions related to class III gaming as provided in 25 U.S.C. § 2701, (v) the rule, regulation, and ratemaking or municipal resolution or ordinance numbers of any rules, regulations, or rates, or municipal resolutions or ordinances or proposed rules, regulations, or rates, or municipal ordinances or resolutions and (vi) the titles and any identifying numbers of any procurement contracts and other documents disseminated by a state agency, either house of the state legislature, the unified court system, municipal agency or local legislative body in connection with a governmental procurement;
(4) the name of the person, organization, or legislative body before which such client has lobbied;
(5) (i) the compensation paid or owed to each such lobbyist, and any other expenses paid or incurred by such client for the purpose of lobbying.
(ii) any expenses required to be reported pursuant to subparagraph (i) of this paragraph shall be listed in the aggregate if seventy-five dollars or less and if more than seventy-five dollars such expenses shall be detailed as to amount, to whom paid, and for what purpose; and where such expenses are more than seventy-five dollars on behalf of any one person, the name of such person shall be listed.
(iii) for the purposes of this paragraph, expenses shall not include:
(A) personal sustenance, lodging and travel disbursements of such lobbyist and client;
(B) expenses, not in excess of five hundred dollars, directly incurred for the printing or other means of reproduction or mailing of letters, memoranda or other written communications.
(iv) expenses paid or incurred for salaries other than that of the lobbyist shall be listed in the aggregate.
(v) expenses of more than fifty dollars must be paid by check or substantiated by receipts and such checks and receipts shall be kept on file by such client for a period of three years.
(6) (i) the name and public office address of any statewide elected official, state officer or employee, member of the legislature or legislative employee and entity with whom the client of a lobbyist has a reportable business relationship;
(ii) a description of the general subject or subjects of the transactions between the client of a lobbyist and the statewide elected official, state officer or employee, member of the legislature or legislative employee and entity; and
(iii) the compensation, including expenses, to be paid and paid by virtue of the business relationship.
(c) (1) All such semi-annual reports shall be subject to review by the commission.
(2) Such semi-annual reports shall be kept on file for a period of three years and shall be open to public inspection during such period.
(3) Each semi-annual report filed by a client pursuant to this section shall be accompanied by a filing fee of fifty dollars. In addition to the filing fees authorized by this article, the commission may impose a fee for late filing of a semi-annual report required by this section not to exceed twenty-five dollars for each day that the report required to be filed is late, except that if the client making a late filing has not previously been required by statute to file an annual or semi-annual report, the fee for late filing shall not exceed ten dollars for each day that the report required to be filed is late.
(4) Any client of a lobbyist that is required to file a semi-annual report and:
(i) that has spent over fifteen thousand dollars in the aggregate for reportable compensation and expenses for lobbying, either during the calendar year, or during the twelve-month period, prior to the date of this semi-annual report, and
(ii) at least three percent of whose total expenditures during the same period were devoted to lobbying in New York shall report to the commission the names of each source of funding that has contributed over two thousand five hundred dollars from a single source that were used to fund the lobbying activities reported and the amount of each contribution received from each identified source of funding; provided, however, that amounts received from each identified source of funding shall not be required to be disclosed if such amounts constitute membership dues, fees, or assessments charged by the reporting entity to enable an individual or entity to be a member of the reporting entity.
This disclosure shall not require disclosure of the sources of funding whose disclosure, in the determination of the commission based upon a review of the relevant facts presented by the reporting client or lobbyist, may cause harm, threats, harassment, or reprisals to the source or to individuals or property affiliated with the source. The reporting lobbyist may appeal the commission's determination and such appeal shall be heard by a judicial hearing officer who is independent and not affiliated with or employed by the commission, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the commission. The reporting lobbyist shall not be required to disclose the sources of funding that are the subject of such appeal pending final judgment on appeal.
The disclosure shall not apply to:
(i) any corporation registered pursuant to Article 7-A of the executive law that is qualified as an exempt organization by the United States Department of the Treasury under I.R.C. § 501(c)(3); provided, however, that this disclosure shall apply to any in-kind donations of staff, staff time, personnel, offices, office supplies, financial support of any kind or any other resources to any corporation or entity that is qualified as an exempt organization by the United States Department of the Treasury under I.R.C. 501(c)(4) when such in-kind donations are over two thousand five hundred dollars and from any corporation or entity that is qualified as an exempt organization by the United States Department of the Treasury under I.R.C. 501(c)(3). In such case the entity receiving such in-kind donations shall disclose the fair market value and identify the I.R.C. 501(c)(3) entity providing such in-kind donations and give notice within a reasonable time to the 501(c)(3) entity that it shall be required to file a report with the department of law pursuant to § 172-e of the executive law;
(ii) any corporation registered pursuant to Article 7-A of the executive law that is qualified as an exempt organization by the United States Department of the Treasury under I.R.C. § 501(c)(4) and whose primary activities concern any area of public concern determined by the commission to create a substantial likelihood that application of this disclosure requirement would lead to harm, threats, harassment, or reprisals to a source of funding or to individuals or property affiliated with such source, including but not limited to the area of civil rights and civil liberties and any other area of public concern determined pursuant to regulations promulgated by the commission to form a proper basis for exemption on this basis from this disclosure requirement; or
(iii) any governmental entity.
The commission on ethics and lobbying in government shall promulgate regulations to implement these requirements.