{"id":1572,"date":"2015-12-07T10:30:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T15:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=1572"},"modified":"2015-12-07T10:39:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T15:39:43","slug":"the-former-speaker-is-convicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-former-speaker-is-convicted\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FORMER SPEAKER IS CONVICTED"},"content":{"rendered":"

When former Assembly Speaker Silver was convicted of corruption on all counts, there was also a second conviction: Albany\u2019s way of conducting the public\u2019s business.\u00a0 From the court proceedings\u2019 first days,it was clear that Albany\u2019s ethics were also on trial.<\/p>\n

In fact, Silver\u2019s attorneys made that very argument: “It’s impossible, absolutely impossible, for a member of the Assembly to do his or her job and to go out, make laws . . . and not have some form of conflict of interest.”<\/p>\n

Now a jury has concluded that using the powers of a lawmaker\u2019s office for private gain is illegal.<\/p>\n

The heart of the case against Silver was that he used his powerful position as Assembly Speaker to exchange governmental favors for money, adding$4 million to his personal wealth.\u00a0 The former Speaker is not the first, nor the last, to face these charges, but he is the highest ranking to be convicted.<\/p>\n

So far, Albany\u2019s political leadership has been whistling past the political graveyard, hoping that this court case would simply go away.\u00a0 By ignoring calls for immediate action, Governor Cuomo and the current Assembly and Senate leadership have essentially argued that existing laws are good enough.\u00a0 Inaction speaks louder than words.<\/p>\n

But with the conviction of the Assembly Speaker, the conviction of the former Deputy Senate Majority Leader, and the ongoing court proceedings against the former Senate Majority Leader, the governor cannot hope that the public demand for action will melt away.<\/p>\n

Here are four immediate steps to begin to rebuild trust in Albany:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The governor must convene a special legislative session devoted to ethics. 90 percent of New Yorkers believe that Albany\u2019s ethics are too weak.\u00a0 A special session forces lawmakers to return to Albany to take up an important issue.\u00a0 It is far harder to ignore reforms under the withering glare of focused public attention. The governor must act this month.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Lawmakers\u2019 outside income must be limited. A consistent pattern from the convictions against sitting lawmakers has been their use of public office for private gain.\u00a0 The vast majority of legislators either do not have outside jobs, or have ones that pay very little\u2014it\u2019s a small minority that has too often gotten into legal trouble.\u00a0 The Congress has significant limits on outside income, Albany should too.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Close the LLC \u201cloophole.\u201d Limited liability companies (LLCs) can make much larger campaign contributions than other businesses.\u00a0 As a result, they have become a honey pot of political money for candidates.\u00a0 LLCs are often used by wealthy real estate developers and who show up frequently in Albany\u2019s wheeling and dealing \u2013 large LLC contributors were key witnesses in the Silver case and are part of the ongoing proceedings against the former Senate Majority Leader.\u00a0 New York should close the honey pot and treat LLCs like other businesses for the purposes of campaign contributions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Overhaul the state ethics watchdogs. New Yorkers spend millions of dollars for state ethics watchdogs, yet it has consistently been federal prosecutors who have brought justice to Albany.\u00a0 U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara shouldn\u2019t have to be the \u201cSheriff of Albany,\u201d New Yorkers should get their money\u2019s worth out of state agencies.\u00a0 These agencies should be independent and functional \u2013 neither of which they are now.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Of course, more will need to be done to make Albany the nation\u2019s leader in ethics, not its punch line.\u00a0 But by taking those four steps, New Yorkers would have confidence that the governor and the legislature are beginning to clean up Albany. The next move should come from governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          When former Assembly Speaker Silver was convicted of corruption on all counts, there was also a second conviction: Albany\u2019s way of conducting the public\u2019s business.\u00a0 From the court proceedings\u2019 first days,it was clear that Albany\u2019s ethics were also on trial. In fact, Silver\u2019s attorneys made that very argument: “It’s impossible, absolutely impossible, for a member […]<\/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-1572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572","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=1572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}