Penalties

* § 12. Penalties. (a) Except as provided for in section ten of this act, any person or organization who knowingly and wilfully violates any provision of this act, shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. For the purposes of this subdivision, the chief administrative officer of any organization required to file a statement or report shall be the person responsible for making and filing such statement or report unless some other person prior to the due date thereof has been duly designated to make and file such statement or report. (b) A person or organization who fails to file a statement or report within the time required for the filing of such report shall be subject to a civil penalty, in an amount not to exceed five thousand dollars, to be assessed by the commission. Such assessment may only be imposed after written notice of such failure and the expiration of a reasonable period within which to cure the failure. The amount of such assessment shall be determined only after a hearing at which the party shall be entitled to appear and be heard. Such assessment may be recovered in an action brought by the attorney general. (c) There is hereby established in the custody of the state comptroller a special fund to be known as the "Lobbying Act Enforcement Fund". Such fund shall consist of all moneys recovered by the attorney general or received by the commission from the assessment of civil penalties authorized by this section. Such moneys shall be deposited to the credit of such fund and shall, in addition to any other moneys made available for such purpose, be available to the commission generally for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the lobbying act. All payments from the lobbying act enforcement fund shall be made on the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified and submitted by the chairman of the commission or the executive director of the commission if so designated by the chairman. * NB Chapter 2 of the laws of 1999 repealed, effective January 1, 2000, the lobbying act as enacted by section 1 of chapter 1040 of the laws of 1981. A new lobbying act was enacted as Article 1-A of the legislative law. Section 5 of such chapter 2 transfers all of the functions and powers of the New York temporary state commission on lobbying created by such chapter 1040 to the New York temporary state commission on lobbying created by Article 1-A of the legislative law with respect to receiving the periodic and annual reports required to be filed pursuant to sections 8, 9 and 10 of the repealed chapter 1040. Also, pursuant to section 7 of such chapter 2, any action or proceeding commenced prior to January 1, 2000 under the old lobbying act shall be continued, prosecuted and defended pursuant to the old lobbying act as in effect on December 31, 1999. Because of these provisions, the Commission will continue to set out the full text of the repealed lobbying act through December 31, 2000 in order that lobbyists who were subject to the former lobbying act may be adequately apprised of the responsibilities and obligations imposed upon them as continued by sections 5 and 7 of chapter 2 of the laws of 1999.