When Senator Skelos was arrested for alleged corruption on May 4^th, a clock started ticking.  In previous arrests, Governor Cuomo would weigh in with a raft of ethics changes within a couple of weeks.  When former Assembly Speaker Silver was arrested on January 22^nd, the governor waited until the Assembly sorted itself out and then gave a major speech to advance ethics measures on February 2^nd – ten days later.

But when it comes to the recent arrest of the former Senate Majority Leader, there has not been a peep from the governor.  No official statement, no promised speech, nothing.  In fact, after the legislative leaders emerged from a meeting with the governor – a meeting in which they discussed the end of the session’s legislative priorities – ethics was not on the list.

And it’s not like the governor hasn’t been in public:  he has talked about the problems of campus sexual assault; he has urged action on his proposed education tax credit; and he was touring the Indian Point Power Plant after its recent transformer fire.

Regarding the criminal charges filed against Senator Skelos, all that the governor has said was that “If the charges are correct, it’s deeply disturbing.”  If the charges are correct, it is not disturbing, it is criminality.  What is disturbing are the criminal charges themselves: that Senator Skelos extorted payments for his son from businesses.

So, what’s different this time for the governor?  Is it that he is trending lightly on allegations against a Senate Republican, but was ready to pounce when an Assembly Democrat was arrested?

Is it that that he is concerned about the growing sense that his contributors from the real estate industry are increasingly connected to allegations of corruption?

Of course, we don’t know.  But what should be concerning to all New Yorkers is the failure of the governor – and the legislative leaders – to put ethics on Albany’s priority list.

And New Yorkers are getting sick of what they see. A recent Marist College poll found that three-quarters of those surveyed thought that corruption has gotten worse in New York in recent years. The same poll found that the governor’s job performance rating has dropped to 37%.

According to press reports, Marist’s pollster Lee Miringoff said voters are looking to Cuomo to address corruption.  According to the Associated Press, Miringoff observed, “One of the pillars of his campaign was the notion that he would get Albany working again and clean up the mess.  Now there’s this drip, drip, drip reminding voters almost every day about the pervasive corruption in Albany. Of the three men in the room, two have been charged. If you’re the third guy it’s hard to buffer yourself.”

Yet according to new Assembly Speaker Heastie, during the most recent leaders’ meeting, ethics reform “wasn’t one of the topics of discussion.”

That’s completely unacceptable.

What does it take to put ethics reform on the table?  The past five Senate Majority Leaders have been criminally charged, two of the four most recent Assembly Speakers have had legal problems, the previous two governors have had ethics problems, the previous Comptroller went to prison for ethics violations, and dozens of lawmakers have run afoul of the law.

What does it take for the governor and the legislative leaders to seriously attack the ethics problems that plagued Albany?

Apparently, they fear little political retribution from voters for their failures to act.  That has to change.

New Yorkers should demand:

1. Independent ethics enforcement, not ethics watchdogs that are controlled by the governor and the legislative leaders.
2. Strict limits on outside income, limits that track those currently in place for the Congress.
3. Meaningful campaign finance changes, in particular closing the Limited Liability Company (LLC) “loophole.” LLCs should be treated like businesses, not humans, for the purposes of campaign contributions.  Limiting LLC contributions to the same as other businesses would go a long way toward curbing Albany’s “pay to play” culture.

The public should demand action from Albany’s legislative leaders.  In particular, they should expect action, not dodging, from the governor.  After all, Andrew Cuomo ran in 2010 saying that he would clean up Albany.  Obviously, that cleanup is, to put it charitably, unfinished.

Ethics was, once again, Albany’s big news last week.  Another lawmaker, long-time Assemblyman Bill Scarborough, pled guilty and faces prison, and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos joined his former counterpart Assembly Speaker Silver in having to defend himself against charges of corruption.

Assemblymember Scarborough faces up decades in prison.  Scarborough also agreed to resign as a member of the Assembly.  In addition, Scarborough pled guilty to a public corruption charge related to use of his campaign account for personal expenses, as well as receiving reimbursements for being in Albany, when he was not there.

However, it was the detailed federal criminal complaint filed against the Senate Majority Leader that was the seismic political event.

The allegations against the Senate Majority leader are stunning:  that the Senator used his considerable political clout to drive business to his son; that he pressured both state and local governments to award contracts to his son’s clients; that he was paid millions of dollars from his law firm, but did no legal work; and that he pressured real estate interests to make campaign contributions that were directed to a state Senate race in the Buffalo area.

However, we must be mindful that Senator Skelos, like all Americans, is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

In addition to bringing criminal charges against the Senate Majority Leader and his son, the complaint identified a number of policy areas that have been recurring problems in Albany:

1.   The U.S. Attorney’s charges stated that Senator Skelos was paid $2.6 million over two decades from his law firm, but did no legal work, which raised once again the issue of lawmakers’ outside income.

2.  The charges argued that the Senator used his clout to generate $100,000 in campaign donations from a real estate developer who used a number of limited liability companies to make those contributions, raising the issue of why LLCs continue to be treated as humans, instead of businesses for the purposes of campaign contribution limits.

3.  The U.S. Attorney’s charges argued that Senator Skelos’s son was engaged in both local and state lobbying without registering and yet, apparently, felt no pressure to comply with state disclosure laws, raising the issue of whether state ethics laws are being adequately enforced.

Those public policy problems should be addressed and, given the circumstances, the governor has a unique responsibility to make reform happen.

The criminal charges against the Senator are serious and, coming on the heels of the arrest and indictment of the former Assembly Speaker clearly strengthens the hand of the governor as the second half of the session heats up.  Governor Cuomo now must move Albany along to resolve the outstanding issues in the 2015 legislative session.

At the top of that list of legislative “must dos” are initiatives to overhaul ethics enforcement, limit outside income, and rein in the influence of New York’s powerful special interests.  Here are three important steps:

1.  If there were independent ethics enforcement, Albany’s pols would behave differently.  Like the rest of us, public officials behave differently when they know they are being watched.  We all drive slower when there are speed traps.  Yet, Albany’s ethics watchdogs are controlled by the governor’s and legislative leaders’ appointees.  New York needs independent ethics enforcers, ones who will apply the law without fear or favor.

2.  A clear limit on outside income, like the one in place in the Congress, would attract more lawmakers who are interested in public service, not monetizing their public office for private gain.

3.  Eliminating the LLC loophole would make it far harder to obtain huge campaign donations from all-too-often difficult to identify contributors.

Albany’s pay-to-play “transactional” political culture must end.  Once again, and more than ever, the ball is squarely in the governor’s court.

When politicians find themselves in a jam, they will try to get the public to focus on a different issue.  In politico parlance, that’s called “misdirection”: getting the public to focus their outrage on something else.  Politicians who command the bully pulpit, like a governor, have the greatest power to misdirect public attention.

Governor Cuomo has recently engaged in a very successful effort to misdirect the public.

The governor initially got himself into the “soup” with this policy of requiring the elimination of all state agencies’ emails after 90 days.

At first, the governor’s office argued that the policy was simply due to technological limitations.  When faced with the fact that the federal government – which has far more emails than New York – now has a seven year retention email policy, the justification changed. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK’S NEXT STEP IN COMBATING GLOBAL WARMING

April 22 was the 45^th anniversary of Earth Day.  Earth Day has been a way to focus public consciousness about air and water pollution.  This year’s Earth Day focused on the need for actions to curb the growing public threats resulting from climate change.

2014 was the hottest year in recorded history. The world’s experts have stated that the global warming is largely due to human activity – primarily as the result of reliance on fossil fuels.  They argue that the only way to respond to this crisis is to dramatically slash the use of fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas, which, when burned, emit the greenhouse gases warming the planet.

How will we generate the energy necessary to power the world?  As societies scramble to answer that question, events in New York may offer a blueprint for action. Read the rest of this entry »

This week lawmakers return to the Capitol to begin the second half, the non-budgetary, part of the 2015 legislative session.  The second half of session likely will be dominated by a handful of issues, including some that dropped off the table during budget negotiations.

The New York City rent control law expires this June.  Advocates argue that maintaining the rent control law helps ensure that housing continues to be affordable in what is becoming one of the most expensive cities in the world.  The issue will be a top priority of tenants’ rights groups who will be opposed by New York City’s real estate industry, which has poured millions of dollars into Governor Cuomo’s and state lawmakers’ reelection bids.

Another top issue, again focused on New York City, will be extension of mayoral control of the city’s school system.  Until recently, the city’s schools were controlled by a more decentralized system that included local school boards and a city Department of Education.  In 2002, legislation passed that granted the mayor direct control over the schools.

In addition, there will be a debate over extending the state’s property tax cap.  Those big issues, plus some of the issues that got kicked out of the budget, like the education tax credit, the DREAM Act, increasing the minimum wage, and the women’s agenda legislation will drive the end of session. Read the rest of this entry »