* § 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* NB Chapter 2 of the laws of 1999 repealed, effective January 1,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.