Donor identification still being debated

ALBANY -- Most of the donors who wrote six- and seven-figure checks to a lobbying group formed to support Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo through a mass TV ad campaign are likely never to be identified.

Sponsors of an ethics and lobbying reform bill enacted last year promised to reveal donors behind nonprofit political lobbying groups like the Committee to Save New York. Now, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics is drawing up specific regulations to comply with the law, which took effect June 1.

The commission is still deciding how far back the donors should be identified for certain lobbying groups, including the Committee to Save New York.

The 2011 ethics and lobby law promised to reveal the donors behind big nonprofit lobbying firms that have traditionally paid for TV ad campaigns by public worker unions, often seeking increases in state spending. The New York Public Interest Research Group said the Committee to Save New York and some other nonprofit lobbyists operate like super PACs, which are criticized for raising unlimited, anonymous funding to influence voters in presidential campaigns.

The state law provides the joint commission with a range of choices in determining how far back donors must be disclosed annually, including Jan. 1 or June 1 of last year. A week ago, the commission's executive director appeared to set June 1 as the date lobbyists would have to start revealing donors, which a commission spokesman denies. Any of those dates would keep secret all or most of the sources of about $17 million in donations the committee has collected since it was created in late 2010.

Cuomo, as a candidate, had promised the most transparent government in history and said the influence of big money in politics must be curbed. He also notes that the law requires identification of donors for the first time; the Committee to Save New York has refused to voluntarily identify donors so far.

The joint commission is holding a public hearing today in Albany as it prepares its regulations, but in written testimony good-government groups are already pushing for far greater disclosure from the organization. They also seek to tighten through regulations another provision of the law that allows lobbyists to seek exemptions to revealing donors, if it would cause harm to the donors.

During a recent meeting, executive director Ellen Biben seemed to indicate donors would have to be identified only after June 1.

But commission spokesman John Milgrim denied Biben set June 1 as the date, but simply noted when the law was effective, saying the board could establish a disclosure date before then.