Reinvent Albany Budget Testimony:  Protect Comptroller’s Contract Oversight, Fund Ethics Oversight

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on General Government Executive budget issues. Reinvent Albany advocates for open, accountable New York government. 

We call on the Legislature to do the following in the Public Protection and General Government parts of your budget resolutions: 

1. Reject the Governor’s two proposals to compromise the integrity of state contracting
   1. Firmly reject the Governor’s proposal to reduce the Comptroller’s contract oversight authority. 
   2. Reject raising the dollar thresholds for contracts triggering restrictions on procurement lobbying without a more comprehensive review of the procurement lobbying law.
2. Spend $1 million to vastly improve the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG)’s ability to process large numbers of filings and upgrade core technology. The Legislature should increase COELIG’s operating budget by $250k, increase lobbyist fees, and dedicate $750k of those fees to revamp COELIG’s IT. This is a tiny sum that would greatly increase COELIG’s ability to fulfill its mission and reduce vexing delays and errors for state workers and lobbyists filing disclosures.
3. Support streamlining financial disclosure statements (FDS) (Part V PPGG) like consolidating questions and using a single table for reporting the value of assets, and add basic improvements like electronic filing for FDS and publishing FDS for candidates and senior public officials online.
4. Support reducing the potential for AI to mislead voters but require rulemaking on frequently caveated “practicable and feasible” provisions in the proposal to ensure the law has meaningful disclosure.
5. Support the Governor’s funding for the State Board of Elections and the public matching program. Do not make changes to election or campaign finance law in an election year. 

1. Reject the Governor’s two proposals to compromise the integrity of state contracting

First, reject reducing the Comptroller’s pre-audit oversight authority by exempting more contracts (Part Y- Streamline Public Procurement)

The Legislature should reject the Governor’s proposal to reduce the Comptroller’s oversight power by exempting a huge swath of smaller dollar contracts from pre-contract review. The increased thresholds for Comptroller review of contracts before they are executed will result in $3 billion more in taxpayer money going into vendors’ pockets without the Comptroller’s needed scrutiny ($1 billion from increasing the threshold for contracts let by agencies other than OGS and its customer agencies, and $2 billion from removing the floor for Comptroller review of agency purchases from centralized contracts). Beyond the PPGG Article VII bill, State Operations, Capital Projects and Aid to Localities appropriations bills contain additional provisions that remove the Comptroller’s pre-audit authority over procurement, including for water infrastructure projects, New York State tourism advertising contracts administered by ESDC, programs to assist non-citizens, among others.

The Governor has presented no data that the Comptroller’s review is delaying such contracts. In contrast, the Comptroller’s office has published extensive data showing its pre-contract review is generally fast and efficient, taking on average only 7 days with 90% of contracts reviewed within 15 days. 

The bill specifically establishes a uniform threshold of $300,000 for pre-audit review by the Comptroller irrespective of the product or service bid on, the type of contract, or the agency or entity awarding the contract – a departure from the current regime of varied thresholds. This is shown in the table below:

The bill additionally raises discretionary threshold purchase levels to $300K from thresholds ranging from $50K to $200K for commodities and services. 

When former Governor Cuomo removed Comptroller pre-audit review of certain contracts let by SUNY and CUNY and their affiliates in 2011 and 2012, the Buffalo Billion contract bid-rigging scandal followed, resulting in the abuse of nearly a billion dollars in public funds. The Comptroller’s pre-audit review is an effective tool in protecting taxpayer dollars and ensuring fiscal integrity. It has resulted in state savings by acquiring lower costs from vendors, preventing duplicative contracts, and ensuring vendors have a level playing field to compete. Accordingly, the Governor and state Legislature should proceed with great caution in removing any contracts from the Comptroller’s pre-audit review authority. 

Furthermore, the purported time saved in the procurement process is minimal if not illusory since so many contracts are submitted to the Comptroller’s office well past the start date. The contractual process from agency Statement of Need to awarding of a contract is a months to years long process. The Comptroller pre-audit review is just one small part of the process. It is most often slowed by agencies not providing accurate information for the pre-audit review in a timely manner. Surely there are other more substantial areas that can be addressed to speed up procurement, like assisting agencies with writing Requests for Proposals (RFPs), a time consuming element of the procurement process.

Should the Governor want to raise the thresholds from 2006 for pre-audit review and discretionary purchases, it should justify why a uniform standard should be established and engage in a dialogue with the Comptroller and Legislature. Reinvent Albany opposes the increase to the $300K threshold. An inflation-adjusted threshold would be 66% higher than the status quo, but the Governor’s proposed increases are up to 500% higher (increasing the threshold from $50K to $300K; see table above). 

Second, reject the perfunctory extension of the Procurement Lobbying Law (Part BB- Extend Procurement Lobbying Law and Increase Contract Threshold)

Reinvent Albany opposes this perfunctory extension of the Procurement Lobbying Law. The Procurement Lobbying Law expires in 2026, and the Governor proposes extending it for five years to July 31, 2031. The only change proposed is to raise the threshold for  contracts to $50K from $15K that would trigger regulation of procurement, like restrictions on contacts between vendors and agencies during the procurement process.

With the procurement lobbying law first expiring in 2007 and several extenders continuing it (most recently in 2021), a comprehensive review of the law is long past due. The State should do a one-year renewal without any changes to the law, and charge the NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) with holding public hearings, issuing a report indicating what is and is not working about the law, and making legislative and policy recommendations. New York City did a comprehensive review of its lobbying laws in this manner between 2011 and 2013 when the City Council convened a Lobbying Commission to review the law. 

A commission could examine issues like whether vendors should be able to lobby the Legislature on contracts during the restricted period when they can only contact a designated person at the agency issuing a Request for Proposal. Another area needing clarity is when precisely a state agency or entity has identified a Statement of Need that triggers the period of restricted vendor contacts with an agency seeking products or services. Merely increasing the applicability of the Procurement Law provisions to contracts beginning at a $50K threshold rather than $15K is insufficient (and much larger than an inflation adjusted increase, which would be about $25K, presuming the $15K threshold was an appropriate threshold to begin with).

2. Support $250K more for Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) for $9.1 million total; new fees for lobbyists should fund $750,000 tech upgrades (State Operations Appropriations Bill and Part U in the PPGG)

We strongly urge you to fully fund COELIG with $9.1 million for its operations. The Executive Budget (State Ops, page 212) falls short of COELIG’s request for $9,160,000 by $250,000, appropriating only $8,910,000. We urge you to fully fund COELIG at the level they have requested. A $250,000 increase is a tiny amount in the context of a $260 billion budget, but a very meaningful amount to COELIG, which is the first line of defense against corruption in state government. 

COELIG staff have broad responsibilities, and it is crucial they have the funding to fully staff up and help public officials comply with reporting requirements, hold mandated training sessions, and ensure rules and laws are being followed by all. COELIG is counting on $9.1 million to fill five positions that are currently on hold; if filled, they would get to a full headcount of 68. 

Additionally, new training and registration fees for lobbyists should benefit COELIG and its filers, not solely the general fund. Parts U and Z of the Public Protection and General Government Executive Budget bill create two new fees related to COELIG’s training and registration requirements for lobbyists:

• Part U would impose late fees of $25 per day on lobbyists and lobbyist clients who fail to timely comply with mandated ethics trainings, raising a total of $750,000 in revenue, according to the PPGG Memorandum in Support (Page 28). 
• Part Z would increase lobbyist registration fees from $200 to $250 and require lobbyists to pay the registration fee in both years of the biennial registration period, raising a total of $300,000 in revenue, according to the PPGG Memorandum in Support (Page 32). 

Part Z would be a 250% increase in fees over a two-year period for lobbyists registered in the state of New York. According to COELIG staff and as discussed at their January 21, 2026 meeting, they worked with the Division of the Budget to propose these fees, and asked that $750,000 be allocated to COELIG for a technology upgrade for FY 2026-2027, and $375,000 annually thereafter. 

We think it is only fair that if lobbyists are paying more, they see some benefit. Upgrading the financial disclosure and lobby filing systems will not only benefit filers, but also COELIG staff, who oversee filings and use them for enforcement actions, and the general public – including the press – who use the disclosures to better understand who is seeking to influence state government. 

3. Support streamlining financial disclosure statements (FDS), but recommend bolder reforms like electronic filing, and publishing statements online (Part V in the PPGG)

Part V of PPGG makes modest changes to Section 73-a of the Public Officers Law, which includes the full text of the financial disclosure statement (FDS) forms. While we would prefer the form itself not be in law – rather developed by COELIG using a framework provided in law and integrating stakeholder feedback through rulemaking – we support the intent of this proposal to streamline the form. A summary of the changes is below:

• Removes legalese, for example, instead of repeatedly saying “reporting individual,” it makes the language directive, as follows: “If YOU practice law….describe the services rendered.”
• Consolidates questions, like having public officials list income categories (positions, investments, etc.) together with their spouse/child together rather than in separate questions.
• Removes outdated references to the phase-in of changes to reporting of clients of lawyers after the Skelos and Silver scandals.
• Raises certain thresholds for reporting from $1,000 to $2,000 for financial interests in contracts or investments, or $10,000 to $20,000 for debts or liabilities; we think the increase to $2,000 is reasonable for reporting financial interests, though would retain the current $10,000 trigger for debt/liability reporting.
• Consolidates the two tables of values used to categorize various assets and business holdings into one table.
• Provides examples of services provided to clients.
• Consolidates reporting on crypto holdings with other securities, while retaining current requirements.
• Corrects references to Public Officers Law in tax law references to the sharing of public officials’ tax returns upon request of the federal government.

These changes are positive, but we urge the Legislature and Governor to be much bolder in reforming financial disclosures. As we recommended to the Governor and Legislature during the creation of COELIG in 2022, we ask you to make these changes:

• Filers should be expanded to include members of economic development entities. There are a number of bills to address this: A2673 (Solages) and S5169 (Skoufis)/A8307 (McMahon)
• FDS should be required to be filed electronically, with full public disclosures in machine-readable format on the commission’s website. COELIG’s 2026 Legislative Agenda Item #7 expressed in S6162 (Skoufis) would accomplish this.
• FDS of candidates for office should be published online, as well as agency heads, commissioners of boards, and other senior public officials. COELIG’s Legislative Agenda Item #6 embodied in S4857-C (Skoufis)/A463-B (Paulin) would publish candidates’ statements. 
• Full address information, including suite numbers, for businesses should be reported.
• Closing a loophole allowing filers to not report investments or other assets if their value is “not ascertainable.” We understand that the value of assets and investments can change – however, their value on a given day is ascertainable.

4. Support the intent of three proposals seeking to reduce the potential for AI to mislead the general public and voters during campaigns (Part X in the TED-AI-Generated Content; Part S in the PPGG- Protecting Elections from Misleading and Deceptive AI Content; Part R in the PPGG- Preventing Voter Suppression in Elections)

Reinvent Albany supports the Governor and Legislature requiring the disclosure of AI content generally, and in campaigns. We further support a prohibition on airing certain deepfakes (content that is actually fake but may appear to be real to the public) just before an election provided the language reflects a compelling state interest that makes it constitutionally defensible. 

Part X of the TED requires (as is technically feasible and reasonable) synthetic or AI-generated content developed on programs like ChatGPT include provenance information – a cryptographic signature bonded to the content that reveals it is AI content – and the program and systems used to create it. The maker may also voluntarily include personal identifying information (PII) as part of the provenance information, such as their internet protocol address. “Synthetic content creation system providers” like OpenAI are also charged with providing a tool to the public to read the provenance data, and large platforms like Meta are required to make the provenance data publicly accessible.

Part S in the PPGG presumes passage of Part X in the TED, and requires the provenance information of “materially deceptive media” (a.k.a “deepfakes”) in campaigns be disclosed, as is practicable, including the personal identifying information (PII) a maker may have voluntarily included like the unique internet protocol or device used in making the synthetic content. Deepfakes will also have to be labeled as manipulated content to the public. Furthermore, no person or entity can publish a deepfake within 90 days of an election if they know or should know it was fake, it was intended to impact the election, and was made without a candidate’s or individual’s permission if they are featured in the deepfake. There are several exemptions to the ban on publishing manipulated content just before an election: traditional media and streaming services can publish deepfakes with provenance data disclosures; deepfakes can be published if considered parody or satire; a social media platform or internet service cannot be held liable for a user disseminating a deepfake.

Enforcement of the provisions in Part X of the TED regarding disclosure of AI provenance information are handled by the Attorney General with the courts able to impose civil penalties up to $5K. The disclosures and prohibitions related to election-related deepfakes are also enforced concurrently by the district attorneys, and include a private right of action for candidates. Part R in the PPGG specifies that violations of the disclosure of and prohibition on certain elections-related deepfakes are misdemeanors, and class E and D felonies for repeat offenses.

These proposals would collectively go into effect in 2027, after the 2026 state elections. 

Reinvent Albany recommends the following changes to improve this legislation:

• Require rulemaking to make clear when requirements in the bills are practicable or technologically feasible. Without rulemaking, some synthetic content or election-related deepfakes may not have provenance data disclosed or the PII that is part of it.
• Define parody or satire and provide criteria for making that determination, since deceptive media that is parody or satire is not subject to prohibition or disclosure. 
• Include a severability clause in Part S of the PPGG should the courts strike down prohibitions on publishing deepfakes but not disclosure, for example.

5. Support the Governor’s budget request for Public Campaign Finance Board and the Board of Elections (State Operations Appropriations Bill)

We fully support the Governor’s budget request for $116.1 million for the Public Campaign Finance Board and $142.2 million for the Board of Elections. Empowering small donors and ensuring secure elections must continue to be a priority for New York State as independent donors spend more and more to influence voters.

We strongly urge the Legislature to make no further changes to the Public Campaign Finance Program. The amendments from last year – widely opposed by watchdog and civic groups – were a step back for one of the best state programs in the country, and were introduced at the last minute. The Legislature must protect the program’s integrity and avoid rushing through any more self-serving changes, particularly in an election year which would complicate administration and compliance.

Thank you for considering our recommendations related to proposals in the PPGG Article VII bill.

Click here to view the testimony as a PDF.