Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation that would have widened the net of eligible campaign contributions for matching public funds under a new system that is being rolled out in the 2024 elections….
“Signing this bill would effectively reduce the impact of small donors on elections,” Hochul wrote in a veto memo on Wednesday. The legislation is in “direct contravention of the purpose” of the public campaign finance program, she added.
The bill would have allowed for the first $250 of any contribution to a campaign in an election cycle to be matched by state funding. Currently, the program only allows matching donations for contributors who gave no more than $250 in a cycle. The amended version would have allowed larger contributions from deep-pocketed donors to receive a taxpayer-funded boost.