As the former New York State Senate Majority Leader goes to trial and his former counterpart Assembly Speaker is still in court, it has become clear that whatever the outcome, Albany\u2019s ethics is on trial.<\/p>\n
And business as usual at the state Capitol is facing a conviction in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n
While both cases are different, they share a common theme \u2013 abuse of public office for private gain.<\/p>\n
In the case involving the former Assembly Speaker, the prosecutor\u2019s case is built on the allegation that the former Speaker used his legislative power to drive state aid to legal clients and in return received millions of dollars for himself \u2013 even though he did no legal work.<\/p>\n
The former Speaker denies the charges and argues that this form of quid-pro-quo is legal.<\/p>\n
In the case involving the former Senate Majority Leader, the prosecutor\u2019s case is built on the allegation that the Senator used his considerable power to force those with business before him to do business with his son \u2013 even though little work was done by him.<\/p>\n
The former Senator denies the charges and argues that what he did was legal.<\/p>\n
With both cases moving through the legal system, and with both lawmakers presumed innocent until action by the courts, we cannot draw a conclusion about their guilt or innocence.\u00a0 That\u2019s for the juries to decide.<\/p>\n
But what is clear is that business as usual in Albany looks terrible in these court proceedings.\u00a0 If it turns out that the actions by these two men are legal, the cries for change will be deafening.\u00a0 If they are convicted, the public should demand that Albany\u2019s ethical standards be improved so that no one thinks that using public office for private gain is acceptable.<\/p>\n
It should be a time for real change.<\/p>\n
Reformers are pushing for such changes.\u00a0 A coalition of civic organizations last week urged Governor Cuomo to convene a special session devoted strictly to ethics.\u00a0 In addition to the court cases, the groups cited a recent national ranking which gave New York State a D-minus grade in how it handles issues of integrity.<\/p>\n
The groups issued a call to the governor and the legislative leaders to embrace a wide-ranging package of reforms that included placing strict limits on public officials\u2019 outside income.<\/p>\n
As mentioned earlier, in both cases the legislators are accused of using their public office for private gain.\u00a0 Most New York State lawmakers currently do not have outside income, or they make a small amount.\u00a0 The Congress places limits on outside income, New York should too.<\/p>\n
The groups also called for an overhaul of the state\u2019s system of monitoring ethics.\u00a0 Specifically, the groups noted that it has been federal prosecutors, not state ones, which have been responsible for the lion\u2019s share of the ethics actions brought in recent years.\u00a0 The groups called for changes to increase transparency of the state\u2019s ethics watchdogs\u2019 operations, meetings and votes; expand jurisdiction to include all executive and legislative branch employees; and elevate the independence of the commissioners from their appointing authorities.<\/p>\n
The groups also called for new campaign financing changes in response to what has been found in the cases against the former legislative leaders.<\/p>\n
While there have been some improvements to ethics laws over the past ten years, the core problem of lawmakers using their public posts for private gain still persists.\u00a0 New Yorkers have lost faith in state government to make decisions without using the interest and influence of those who do business with the state.<\/p>\n
The governor and the state legislature must act so public trust can be restored in New York\u2019s democratic institutions and political processes.\u00a0 There is no shortage of solutions that New York\u2019s political leaders can draw upon in enacting comprehensive change, instead of incremental reform, and in doing so give hope to the public that can trust can be restored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the former New York State Senate Majority Leader goes to trial and his former counterpart Assembly Speaker is still in court, it has become clear that whatever the outcome, Albany\u2019s ethics is on trial. And business as usual at the state Capitol is facing a conviction in the court of public opinion. While both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1566,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}