Finance
NYS' $100M program to publicly finance campaigns prompts an emergency fix
ALBANY — New York State has issued an emergency order to better verify contributors to campaigns before the state matches cash contributions under the new public campaign financing program.
The order was made two days after the June primary and in the midst of the program’s biggest rollout leading to the November legislative elections. It followed a media report that claimed the system was abused by an Assembly candidate who secured nearly $163,000 in taxpayer funds under the program, some of it with cash donations without a way to verify or contact the contributor.
The emergency amendment approved by the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board on June 27 requires that “contribution cards” that were already required for cash donations must include a phone number or email address so contributors can be verified.
The State Legislature created the program to limit the influence of wealthy donors. This election year, the first major use of the program, has drawn 316 candidates vying for 213 state legislative races. They have qualified to receive part of $100 million in state-funded matches to encourage small donations, $5 to $250, from individuals.
WHAT TO KNOW
- The state has issued an emergency order to better verify contributors to campaigns before the state matches cash contributions under the new public campaign financing program.
- The amendment, which came after a media report of abuse of the system, requires that “contribution cards” for cash donations include a phone number or email address so contributors can be verified.
- This election year is the first major use of the program and has drawn 316 candidates vying for 213 state legislative races. They have qualified to receive part of $100 million in state-funded matches.
The response to the program by challengers and incumbents has exceeded the predictions of even the program’s most ardent supporters, but hasn’t come without problems.
The amendment came after The New York Times reported on fundraising by Assembly candidate Dao Yin in the June 25 primary. The Times said the Queens Democrat used “fake donations and forged signatures” in a campaign that received almost $163,000 in taxpayer money under the new public finance system.
Yin denied he faked contributions. “Everything we say is distorted” in the news media, Yin told Newsday.
In a written statement, he said his campaign workers “adhered to all the necessary procedures to meet the matching funds requirements. In the event of any inadvertent errors, they are actively collaborating with the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board to rectify them.”
The amendment resolution approved by the campaign finance board said, “Mandating that the contributor’s phone number or email address be provided on a contribution card would greatly assist in the audit and process of contributions in order to pay matchable funds, but are not currently required to be provided.”
“The matching claim would be denied until that information is supplied,” said William J. McCann, co-program manager of the public campaign finance unit, at the June 27 meeting.
The amendment also ends the use of “good-faith letters” that campaigns can attach to donations with too little information to verify the identity of the contributor. Campaigns could provide the letter to say they tried but failed to get the information. Before the amendment, that could have allowed a campaign to receive a matching fund from the state.
“The implementation of the policy of accepting good-faith letters was not a regulation, but rather adopted during program development by bipartisan staff,” said Kathleen McGrath, spokeswoman for the state Board of Elections. “The good-faith letters were to capture a phone number or email address of a cash contributor if not included on the associated contribution card. These data points were not required to be submitted by a committee under the statute for public funds matching, but were an effort by the [state Public Campaign Finance Board] to go above and beyond in auditing submissions. “
With the amendment, “The policy of accepting good-faith letters has been rendered moot,” McGrath said.
The state Board of Elections didn’t immediately release data on the number of letters of good faith that have been accepted. Newsday has requested the data under the Freedom of Information Law.
Two other complaints were handled this year as part of the public campaign financing program, according to Public Campaign Finance Board records.
In April, the board received a complaint that Democrat Gabi Madden’s campaign violated state election law by using a prohibited “game of chance” as a fundraiser in her unsuccessful race to represent parts of Dutchess and Ulster counties in the Assembly. In June, the board dismissed the case without further enforcement action after the campaign refunded the contributions.
In May, the board investigated a complaint that Madden’s campaign failed to report expenditures or in-kind contributions for use of the campaign office. In June, the board dismissed the case without further enforcement action after the campaign amended its required financial disclosures.
At the same June 27 meeting in which the state Public Campaign Finance Board approved the emergency amendment, the board also authorized a referral to law enforcement in another case without saying who or which campaign was the subject of the referral.
McGrath wouldn’t comment.
Board vice chairman Brian Kolb, a Republican who when he served in the Assembly opposed public financing of campaigns, defended the rollout.
“We have a very solid process in place,” Kolb told Newsday. “With any new program, you might find some things that we probably should do a little bit differently … but if there are any issues, we fix them and that’s the whole approach.”
Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which supported public financing of campaigns, said “it’s not surprising there are hiccups the first time through.”
He said the Legislature should review this first year’s performance to determine if any changes are needed to improve accountable and thwart “people who are looking to game the system.”
The seven-week military conflict in the Middle East will redefine Hong Kong’s role as a global financial centre, positioning the city as a safe harbour for capital and investments.
Anecdotal evidence suggested that more banks had turned to Hong Kong to protect their businesses and committed themselves to expanding their presence in the city. At the same time, inquiries about adding allocations of mainland Chinese assets among global investors had recently increased, potentially enlarging the customer base for the city’s asset-management industry and family offices and driving demand for offshore yuan-linked financial products.
For years, Hong Kong’s status as a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region has been challenged by Dubai, which has risen to prominence as a gateway linking Asia and Europe in capital flows, transport and logistics. With the war destabilising the Middle East – at one point forcing the closure of the Dubai International Airport and sending stocks in the Gulf region plunging – Hong Kong has re-emerged due to its geographical location, a pegged exchange rate, free capital flows and support from China’s economic strength.
“In that context, China and Hong Kong are attracting renewed attention,” said Gary Dugan, CEO of The Global CIO Office in Dubai, which advises family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally. “There is growing interest among some clients in increasing exposure to China and Hong Kong. It is less a simple flight to safety and more a reassessment of where investors see relative value, policy consistency and long-term strategic opportunity.”
Dubai now relies on trade, tourism and finance as the pillars of its economy, reflecting the success of its four-decade diversification away from oil for sustained growth. The United Arab Emirates city is home to Jebel Ali Free Zone, the biggest free-trade zone in the Middle East, and the second-largest stock market in the region, with combined market values of US$1.01 trillion. The city, also a global hub for gold trading, has a population of 4 million, about 80 per cent of which are foreign expatriates. Dubai’s economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the January-to-September period last year.
Before seeking a new referendum MPS needs to rebuild trust in the community through completing state audits, putting in place controls to prevent overspending and routine reports to the public.
For MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, who just wrapped up her first year leading Milwaukee’s public school system, her tenure has been punctuated by some very big numbers.
The first is $252 million. That is the amount of new spending voters narrowly approved in an April 2024 referendum to support operations in Wisconsin’s largest school district. Just months later, MPS was rocked by revelations the district was months behind in filing key financial reports to the state, which led to former Superintendent Keith Posley’s resignation.
The second is $1 billion. MPS faces a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $1 billion. The district’s enrollment has declined 30% over the last 30 years, leaving many schools at less than 50% full. That, in part, is driving a plan to close some schools and to improve others to help lower costs.
The final is $46 million, the deficit MPS was running for the 2024-25 school year, an unexpected shortfall which has led to hundreds of staff layoffs.
Getting the district’s accounting, budgeting and financial reporting back on track has dominated Cassellius’s first year at MPS. In an April 15 interview with the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board, she talked in detail about the challenges putting that into order and progress she sees in restoring transparency into its operations.
State funding and aging buildings create budget nightmares
Cassellius says state needs to keep up its share of school funding
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel editorial board, MPS leader Brenda Cassellius says budgets and buildings are her two top worries.
Cassellius said the on-going budget crisis is her top concern. She said the state’s failure to live up to its share of funding is exacerbating MPS’ budget woes. A group of school districts, teachers and parents filed suit against the state Legislature and its Joint Finance Committee claiming the current state funding system is unconstitutional and prevents schools from meeting students’ educational needs.
Funding for special education is especially critical. About 20% of MPS students have disabilities, almost twice the share of the city’s charter schools, and the average of 14% across Wisconsin.
“What’s keeping me up now, you know, is really just the budget crisis we’re in, with not only this year but multiple years going out without additional state aid, we’ve been not getting funding for what our needs are for our students, and particularly our students with special needs,” she said.
Although the state budget increased special education funding to a 42% reimbursement rate, the actual rate has been about 35%. Another component to the budget headache is the age of MPS buildings. The average age is 85 years-old compared to 45 across the nation.
“We have just kicked this can down the curb or kicked it down the street or whatever you call it for too long. And it’s time that we really take on a serious conversation about the conditions of the learning environments in which we send our children,” she said. “Particularly in Milwaukee Public Schools, we serve the most vulnerable children. Children who have language barriers, children who have disabilities, children in high-concentrated poverty.”
What needs to happen before MPS seeks another referendum
Voters need to be comfortable MPS has made tough budget decisions
In an interview with Journal Sentinel editorial board, Brenda Cassellius said voters will need to see budget improvements before seeking more spending
Cassellius said MPS will definitely need to go back to voters for a new referendum in the future. In addition to the 2024 measure, voters approved an $87 million plan in 2020.
Before doing that, she said the district first needs to rebuild trust in the community through completing required state audits, putting into place controls to prevent overspending and routine reports to the school board and public about finances.
“I don’t think that the voters are going to want us to bring something forward until they feel comfortable that we have done the cleanup that is necessary,” she said. “And we’ve built the trust that we have the sufficient controls in place.”
In the interim, she’s hoping the state will meet its constitutional responsibility to adequately fund public schools.
“What the public expects is you know where the money is, you’re spending it as close as you can to children, you’re getting good on the promise around art, music, and PE, and the things the public said they wanted to fund,” Cassellius said. “And they want their kids to have so that they have a quality education and an excellent education in Milwaukee Public Schools, and that they had the right amount of staff that they actually need. In the school to be safe and to run a good operation.”
Rebuilding finance staff in wake of $46 million in overspending
MPS is rebuilding school finance staff in wake of reporting lapses
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel editorial board April 15, MPS superintendent discusses accountability for district’s financial problems.
The $46 million budget shortfall from the 2024-25 school year started coming into view last fall and was confirmed in mid-January. Cassellius noted that in addition to hiring a new superintendent, MPS also parted ways with its comptroller and CFO.
“We are really rebuilding the personnel and staff of the finance department. That is what’s critical, is having the right people in the right seats doing the work,” she said. “Also critical is making sure that you have the right controls in place. The audit findings found that we did not have proper controls in place and now we have those proper controls in place and when we find things we put new SOPs in place and that is what any business does.”
Identifying that shortfall, though painful, was the result of better accounting.
“Being three years behind in auditing means that you don’t have full sight on your actual revenues and expenditures. And so we have now full sight of our revenues and our expenditures and that’s why we were able to see this new deficit of $46 million,” she said. “And we still continue to work with DPI on those processes to make sure that every month we’re doing monthly to actuals and doing those accounting, reporting that to the board. In a way that is consumable to the public that they can understand.”
Jim Fitzhenry is the Ideas Lab Editor/Director of Community Engagement for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reach him at jfitzhen@gannett.com or 920-993-7154.
Property markets move in cycles, and with interest rates rising and other pressures like high fuel costs, some markets are clearly slowing down. Many first-home buyers who have only ever seen markets going up are conditioned to think that when purchasing, competition is always intense and decisions need to be made quickly.
In those times, buyers often feel they need to act fast, stretch their budget and secure a property at almost any cost. But things have definitely changed.
In a softer market, the dynamic shifts. Properties take longer to sell, competition thins, and it’s the vendors who begin to feel pressure.
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For buyers who understand how to navigate that change, the balance of power quickly moves in their favour. The opportunity is not simply to buy at a lower price. It is to negotiate from a position of strength.
If that’s you right now, these are the key skills first-home buyers need to take advantage of in softer market conditions.
The most important shift in a soft market is psychological. In a rising market, buyers often feel like they are competing for limited opportunities. In a softer market, the opposite is true. There are more properties available, fewer active buyers and less urgency overall. This gives buyers options.
When buyers understand that they are not competing with multiple parties on every property, their decision-making improves. They are more willing to walk away, compare opportunities and avoid overpaying. Negotiation strength comes from not needing to transact immediately. When that pressure is removed, buyers are able to engage more strategically.
One of the most common mistakes first-home buyers make is continuing to apply strategies that only work in rising markets. Auction urgency is a clear example. In strong markets, auctions often attract multiple bidders and create competitive tension. In softer conditions, properties are more likely to pass in, shifting the process away from a public bidding environment into a private negotiation.
This is where leverage increases.
Private negotiations allow buyers to introduce conditions that protect their position. These may include finance clauses, longer settlement periods or price adjustments based on due diligence. Opportunities that are rarely available in competitive markets become standard in softer ones.
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