§ 3-706 Expenditures limitations.
AC § 3-706
1.The following limitations apply to all expenditures made by a candidate and his or her principal committee on or after the first day of January preceding the election for which such candidate chooses to participate in the public funding provisions of this chapter and to expenditures made at any time prior to such date for services, materials, facilities, advertising or other things of value received, rendered, published, distributed or broadcast on or after such date: (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subdivision, in each primary election, in each special election to fill a vacancy, and in each general election, expenditures by a participating candidate or a limited participating candidate and his or her principal committee for one of the following offices shall not exceed the following amounts: mayor:$6,158,000 public advocate or comptroller:$3,850,000 borough president:$1,386,000 member of the city council:$161,000 (b) (i) The expenditure limitation in a run-off primary election held pursuant to section 6-162 of the New York state election law or a run-off special election held to fill a vacancy shall be one half the amount of the applicable limitation provided for an election for such office pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
(ii)The board shall promulgate rules to provide for a separate expenditure limit applicable to campaign expenditures for an additional day for voting held pursuant to section 3-108 of the New York state election law, an election held pursuant to court order, or a delayed or otherwise postponed election.
(c)Expenditures by participating or limited participating candidates in a primary election made prior to or on the date of such primary election shall be deemed to have been made for such primary election.
(d)Reserved.
(e)Not later than the first day of March in any year following a general election described in subdivision a of section 25 of the charter, the campaign finance board shall: (i) determine the percentage difference between (A) the average over a calendar year of the consumer price index for the metropolitan New York-New Jersey region published by the United States bureau of labor statistics for the twelve months preceding the beginning of such calendar year, and (B) the average that the board most recently used to adjust expenditure limitations pursuant to this subdivision for the candidates for the applicable office; (ii) adjust each expenditure limitation applicable either pursuant to this subdivision or subdivision 2 of this section by the amount of such percentage difference to the nearest thousand dollars; and (iii) publish such adjusted expenditure limitation in the City Record. Such adjusted expenditure limitation shall be in effect for any election held before the next such adjustment; provided, however, that for such an adjustment occurring after an election for members of the city council at the general election in two thousand twenty-three and every twenty years thereafter, pursuant to subdivision a of section 25 of the charter, the board shall only adjust such expenditure limitations applicable to candidates for member of the city council.
2.The following limitations apply to all expenditures made by a participating or limited participating candidate and his or her principal committee in the three calendar years preceding the year of the election for which such candidate chooses to file a certification as a participating or limited participating candidate pursuant to this chapter and to expenditures made at any time prior to such date for services, materials, facilities, advertising or other things of value received, rendered, published, distributed or broadcast in such calendar years. Such expenditures by a participating or limited participating candidate for one of the following offices and his or her principal committee shall not exceed the following amounts: mayor, public advocate or comptroller:$290,000 borough president:$129,000 member of the city council:$43,000 2-a.
(a)If the expenditures made by a candidate and his or her principal committee subject to the expenditure limitation of subdivision two of this section exceed the amount of the expenditure limitation applicable under such subdivision, such candidate or his or her principal committee shall not be ineligible to receive public funding for qualified campaign expenditures or be in violation of this chapter by reason of exceeding such limitation unless the amount by which such expenditures exceed such limitation is in excess of the expenditure limitation which next applies to such candidate or his or her principal committee pursuant to subdivision one of this section; and further provided that the amount of the expenditure limitation which next applies to such candidate or his or her principal committee, pursuant to subdivision one of this section, shall be reduced by the amount by which the expenditure limitation applicable under subdivision two of this section is exceeded.
(b)Nothing contained in paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall: (i) operate to increase or decrease the amount of public funds that may be received pursuant to section 3-705 by the principal committee; (ii) affect the expenditure limitation set forth in paragraph (b) of subdivision one of this section; or (iii) affect the expenditure limitation set forth in paragraph (a) of subdivision one of this section for purposes of the application of subdivision three of this section.
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6.Expenditures for bank fees and for credit card processing fees for contributions received by the candidate and their principal committee shall not be limited by the expenditure limitation of paragraph a of subdivision 1 of this section. (Am. L.L. 2018/196, 12/1/2018, eff. 3/31/2019; Am. L.L. 2019/128, 7/14/2019, eff. 7/14/2019; Am. L.L. 2023/069, 5/29/2023, eff. 6/28/2023; Am. L.L. 2023/168, 12/16/2023, eff. 12/16/2023; Am. L.L. 2025/009, 1/18/2025, retro. eff. 3/1/2024) Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 1988/008, L.L. 1989/004, L.L. 1990/069, L.L. 1998/048, L.L. 2001/021, L.L. 2003/012, L.L. 2004/058, L.L. 2007/034, L.L. 2007/067, L.L. 2023/168, and L.L. 2025/009.
