State Officials' Financial Disclosures, Due Wednesday, to Publicly Reveal Values of Holdings, Income and Debt for First Time

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics today announced that financial disclosure forms to be filed this week by State officials will for the first time publicly reveal amounts of outside income, values of investments and outstanding debts. The new disclosures, pursuant to the Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011, will also reveal certain clients of public officials.

Also for the first time, the financial disclosure statements filed by State elected officials will be published on the Joint Commission's website. All others remain publicly available upon request.

"Disclosure is a critical component to promoting trust in government and under recent reforms the new public disclosures will pull the curtain back on many of our State officials' outside financial interests," said Joint Commission Chair Daniel J. Horwitz.

Pursuant to law, most disclosure statements are due to be filed with the Joint Commission by May 15. Members and staff of the Legislature must first file with the Legislative Ethics Commission which then has through June 30 to turn them over to the Joint Commission for public disclosure.

With limited exceptions, those required to file publicly-available financial disclosure statements include State officers and employees in policy-making positions or who make an annual salary of more than $88,256, members of the Legislature, legislative employees, political party chairman in counties with a population of more than 300,000, and candidates for statewide office or a seat in the Legislature.

Financial disclosure statements filed with the Joint Commission are subject to random review to include consistency with previously filed disclosure statements and other files maintained by the Joint Commission, as well as publicly available information. Required filers who knowingly and willfully fail to file a financial disclosure statement may be subject to a fine of up to $40,000 as well as other sanctions.

The Joint Commission expects to receive approximately 25,000 State financial disclosure filings this year. Financial disclosure forms, as provided under law, are available by clicking View Elected Officials in the Financial Disclosure drop-down menu on this website. 

Copies of financial disclosures on file may be obtained by clicking the Record Request link at the bottom of the website.