The Joint Commission on Public Ethics today released its 2011 Annual Report showing a record $220 million on spending to influence decision making in government. The total spending for the year topped 2010 by approximately $7 million, and was a 175 percent increase compared to a decade before.
Total lobbying-based advertising, at nearly $31 million, was also record setting for the years advertising spending data has been separately compiled. The Committee to Save New York, Inc., spent more than any other group on lobbying activities, spending nearly $12 million, mostly on advertising.
The report, available on the web at jcope.ny.gov, encapsulates a transition year for the independent Joint Commission under the Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011. The Joint Commission assumed and continued the business and records of the former Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), but with broader authority and oversight to include state legislators, candidates for the Legislature, and legislative employees, as well as the four statewide elected officials, candidates for those offices, executive branch state employees, certain political party chairs, and lobbyists and their clients.
The report covers work and information received by CPI in 2011, including data relating to ethics and lobbying regulation. The report also highlights information about the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, including its new organizational structure, its emphasis on training and compliance, as well as certain regulatory changes pursuant to the Act.
Among the highlights:
- The total spent on lobbying activities in 2011 reached a record $220.3 million.
- The total spent on lobbying-related advertising reached $30.8 million; a record for the years since advertising spending data has been separately compiled.
- In 2011, 25,389 individual Financial Disclosure Statements were filed with the Joint Commission; 86 percent of which were filed electronically and 14 percent of which were submitted as paper forms. Legislative branch Financial Disclosure Statements will be filed with the Joint Commission beginning this year.
- About 45,000 lobbyist and client filings, and lobbying contracts, were reviewed in 2011.
- CPI opened 134 investigations of alleged ethics and lobbying violations and issued 19 Notices of Reasonable Cause in 2011.
- Ethics training was provided to 5,956 state employees utilizing a combination of online and instructor-led training.
Contact Communications and Public Information Office
The Communications and Public Information Office is the point of contact for the public and members of the press with questions about the Commission's mission and to request access to records such as the financial disclosure statements filed by state officials and employees, the statewide elected officials, members of the Legislature and legislative employees.
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New York State
Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government
540 Broadway
Albany, NY 12207