{"id":1626,"date":"2016-02-22T10:25:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T15:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=1626"},"modified":"2016-02-22T10:42:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T15:42:04","slug":"the-next-phase-of-the-ethics-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-next-phase-of-the-ethics-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"THE NEXT PHASE OF THE ETHICS &#8220;DEBATE&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers return to Albany this week to tackle an agreement on the upcoming budget.\u00a0 The state\u2019s fiscal year starts on April 1<sup>st<\/sup>.\u00a0 As part of his budget, and in reaction to the political crime wave that has swept the Capitol, Governor Cuomo included ethics reforms.<\/p>\n<p>How do we know there is a political crime wave?\u00a0 Crime-fighting U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara recently spoke in Albany and here are some of the observations he made:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He hammered away at the complacency and implicit collaboration of other lawmakers, whom he called \u201cenablers,\u201d in the \u201crancid culture\u201d of Albany.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhat\u2019s been going on in New York State government lately is simultaneously heartbreaking, head-scratching and almost comic,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>At an event organized by the New York State Conference of Mayors, Bharara said that the job of local officials is made harder because of the \u201cculture of corruption\u201d in state government.<\/li>\n<li>Bharara described New York State politics as a \u201crancid, show me the money culture.\u201d He added, \u201cThe standard to maintain one of the most powerful public positions in our state [must be] something higher than \u2018I have not yet been convicted of a crime.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since Bharara\u2019s statements in Albany earlier this month, shockingly little has been said by the governor or the majority parties\u2019 legislative leaders.\u00a0 While the minority leaders in both houses have argued for reforms, the majorities\u2019 leaders have been quiet.<\/p>\n<p>No hearings have been called, no news conferences by the governor or the majority party legislative leaders have been held to urge reforms, and it\u2019s been eerily quiet.\u00a0 It appears that they are hoping it all blows over and that Albany\u2019s political status quo stays largely intact.<\/p>\n<p>If history is any guide, Albany\u2019s \u201cmuscle memory\u201d will be to discuss ideas over the next few weeks and then secretly hammer out an ethics deal.\u00a0 That deal will then be heralded as \u201chistoric\u201d with \u201cunprecedented new reforms\u201d that will govern the state\u2019s ethics.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, it will then become clear that loopholes in those \u201creforms\u201d will have little positive impact and that the status quo will return.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen this \u201cmovie\u201d before, virtually every year, Governor Cuomo and the legislative leaders have enacted ethics reforms \u2013 but little changes.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because secret, last minute deals are designed more to provide political cover than real change.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time to change the ending to that \u201cmovie.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s time for meaningful actions, changes that are hammered out in public, not behind closed doors.<\/p>\n<p>There is a reason that 90 percent of New Yorkers think that corruption is a big problem in state government.\u00a0 Yet, New York\u2019s political class has been intent on appearing to act, while really doing little to change the political culture.<\/p>\n<p>When the U.S. Attorney spoke, he said &#8220;This moment in history calls for something more than just talk.\u00a0 There&#8217;s been a lot of talk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there has been little more than talk.\u00a0 And left to its own devices, Albany\u2019s political establishment will move toward a behind-closed-doors deal, one in which a press release can be written, but one which does little.<\/p>\n<p>New Yorkers must demand more: hearings, public debate, negotiations in the open.\u00a0 Anything less will just be an unsatisfying ethics reform \u201crerun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney sent a warning to New Yorkers as well as to its establishment when he said \u201cA nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We can\u2019t let that happen.\u00a0 Only an open, honest debate around reforms that limit outside income and create independent ethics enforcement can end the scandals that have plagued Albany.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers return to Albany this week to tackle an agreement on the upcoming budget.\u00a0 The state\u2019s fiscal year starts on April 1st.\u00a0 As part of his budget, and in reaction to the political crime wave that has swept the Capitol, Governor Cuomo included ethics reforms. How do we know there is a political crime wave?\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/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-1626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626","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=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1634,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions\/1634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}