The Bonus Situation — 2009 Citywide Elections

If you are a participant running against a well-financed non-participant, you can qualify to receive additional public funds at an increased matching rate and have your spending limit raised or removed. This is called “the bonus situation”.

Tier 1: Non-participating opponent raises or spends more than half the applicable spending limit

Under the Tier 1 bonus, your eligible contributions are matched at a higher rate, up to $1,250 in public funds per contributor, and the cap on the total amount of public funds you can receive increases from 55% to 2⁄3 of the spending limit. In addition, your spending limit for that election is increased by 50%.

Tier 2: Non-participating opponent raises or spends more than three times the applicable spending limit

Under the Tier 2 bonus, you can receive up to $1,500 in matching funds per contributor; the cap on the total amount of public funds you can receive increases to 125% of the spending limit; and your spending limit is removed entirely.

The Bonus Situation

OFFICE		MATCHING RATE	TRIGGER AMOUNT	MAXIMUM PUBLIC FUNDS	EXPENDITURE LIMIT
	* These are approximate matching rate formulas. The CFB will match up to $175 given by each eligible contributor based on the applicable bonus matching rate, bringing the maximum public funds available per contributor up from $1,050 to $1,250 for Tier 1 and $1,500 for Tier 2.
Mayor	regularly	$6–to–$1	—	$3,386,900	$6,158,000
	Tier 1	$7.14*–to–$1	$3,079,001	$4,105,333	$9,327,000
	Tier 2	$8.57*–to–$1	$18,474,001	$7,697,500	no limit
Public Advocate/ Comptroller	regularly	$6–to–$1	—	$2,117,500	$3,850,000
	Tier 1	$7.14*–to–$1	$1,925,001	$2,566,667	$5,775,000
	Tier 2	$8.57*–to–$1	$11,550,001	$4,812,500	no limit
Borough President	regularly	$6–to–$1	—	$762,300	$1,386,000
	Tier 1	$7.14*–to–$1	$693,001	$924,000	$2,079,000
	Tier 2	$8.57*–to–$1	$4,158,001	$1,732,500	no limit
City Council	regularly	$6–to–$1	—	$88,550	$161,000
	Tier 1	$7.14*–to–$1	$80,501	$107,333	$241,500
	Tier 2	$8.57*–to–$1	$483,001	$201,250	no limit

The CFB will examine the disclosure statements of non-participating candidates to decide whether you are entitled to these additional benefits. If you believe that your non-participating opponent triggered the bonus, you may file a petition with all relevant evidence with the CFB.

Please note that the bonus situation is triggered for a single election at a time. For example, you will not receive bonus matching funds or a higher spending limit in the general election just because you received them for the primary election; a non-participating opponent would have to trigger the bonus situation for the general election separately.