Democratic leaders packed the long-overdue state budget with policy measures that will benefit themselves including changes that can help bolster their reelection bids with taxpayer dough.
The massive budget package that was set to be voted on beginning Wednesday includes measures to tweak the public campaign financing system, allow lawmakers to keep collecting salaries from side jobs — and even help Gov. Kathy Hochul ward off a challenge from her estranged lieutenant governor.
“All in all, it’s a generally bad Albany at its cynical worst, and we have nothing positive to say about this and how they’ve done this just underlines that these are self-serving changes Democratic incumbents,” John Kaehny, executive rirector of Reinvent Albany, told The Post Wednesday.
The budget deal will delay a cap on lawmakers’ outside income — pushing it out until at least 2027.
The ban was supposed to go into effect this year, but has been held up due to a court challenge brought by Republican lawmakers.
A lower court ruled earlier this year that the cap was constitutional.
Democrats in the legislature also secured a measure jacking up the limit on donations to be eligible for public funds.
Previously, candidates could have donations up to $250 matched by taxpayer funds provided the individual contributing doesn’t go over that amount.
The limit is now being raised to $1,050, though the state will still only pony up a max $250 match.
The program’s original stated intent was to incentivize candidates who were seeking contributions from normal working people instead of the fat cat donor class.
Critics of the change, like Kaehny, argue it will run against the matching program’s original intent by extending those incentives to wealthy donors as well.
“They’re weakening a landmark campaign finance bill that was passed in broad daylight after eight all-day public hearings and dozens of other consultative meetings and an enormous amount of public debate in daylight,” Kaehny railed.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) tried defending the cynical move by arguing that it has caused headaches for campaigns when people accidentally give slightly more than the $250 limit.
“It’s just a way to just allow people to be supportive of you,” Heastie said.
“It’s not undoing the essence of the program. It’s just making a modification that the 251st dollar doesn’t disqualify you from getting a match if a constituent wants to support you,” the speaker claimed.
Another provision tucked into the deal would require governors and lieutenant governors to run on the same ticket during the primary, instead of separately as elections work now.
This would benefit Hochul if Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado runs against her for the governor seat next year, because he would need to rally someone to share the ticket to challenge an influential incumbent, insiders said.
Delgado has already said he won’t run to be Hochul’s lieutenant governor again.
It wasn’t an entirely new proposal, and has netted bipartisan support.
State Sen. Joe Griffo (R-Onedia) has sponsored legislation to do the same thing for years, but he said the change to elections should’ve been done outside the undemocratic backroom budget process.
“While this type of good government reform deserves a full public discussion outside the budget process, this change will help ensure voters elect leadership teams that share a common vision and are prepared to govern effectively,” Griffo wrote in a joint statement with Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara.
The post NYS Dems pack budget full of ‘self-serving’ perks, watchdog group has ‘nothing positive to say’ about it appeared first on New York Post.
