Metro

444G payback just fine by Bill

Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson yesterday got a huge boost in his bank account that could help him pay down nearly $600,000 in old campaign fines from his last run for City Hall.

Thompson, the former city comptroller and a Democratic hopeful for mayor next year, received $444,029 from the city Campaign Finance Board — matching funds he was still owed from his unsuccessful bid to unseat Mayor Bloomberg in 2009.

He is allowed to use the money only to pay down old debt from his past campaign, not for current campaign expenses. But that shouldn’t be a problem.

Thompson still owes the city $594,374 in violations his campaign received for plastering the city with illegal posters three years ago.

But his campaign wasn’t ready to say yesterday whether it plans to continue fighting the poster fines, or use the new-found money to pay off the tickets issued by the Sanitation Department.

“We’ve just been notified by the Campaign Finance Board on funds that we raised that were matchable, and we will analyze how those funds will be allocated,” the campaign said.“These matchable funds were generated by a large volume of contributions from so many New Yorkers from across the five boroughs that supported the campaign.”

City Comptroller John Liu – who is eying the mayoralty next year despite a federal probe of his campaign finances – said this week he is still fighting the $527,400 the city fined him for his 2009 campaign posters.

Thompson also was fined $17,020 yesterday for a series of 2009 campaign violations, including taking over-the-limit contributions and not filing proper disclosure forms.