With only nine scheduled working days until the end of the 2016 legislative session, it\u2019s a good time to review where New York is at after what is arguably the most scandal-ridden session in state history.<\/p>\n
Despite the corruption convictions of the legislature\u2019s top leaders, other legislators, and the growing federal investigations of top allies of the governor, little has been accomplished to clean up Albany.\u00a0 Last week, however, there were noises that may inspire hope.<\/p>\n
The governor released a package of proposals targeting the infamous limited liability companies\u2019 campaign finance \u201cloophole.\u201d\u00a0 Under state law, LLCs are allowed to donate much higher campaign contributions than other businesses.<\/p>\n
There has been an ongoing effort to close the \u201cloophole\u201d and treat LLCs like other corporations.\u00a0 But the effort has been repeatedly blocked by some Republicans.\u00a0 Last week, the governor tried another approach \u2013 he offered the Senate Republican leadership an a la carte version, which would allow them to treat LLCs like other businesses for the governor\u2019s office only.\u00a0 It was rejected.<\/p>\n
But the governor\u2019s focus on pushing the LLC issue raises a more important question:\u00a0 What should be Albany\u2019s priority in ethics reform?<\/p>\n
The major scandals have been instances in which top-ranking public officials used the power of their government office to enrich themselves personally.\u00a0 In the case of former Assembly Speaker Silver, he gamed the system to the tune of millions of dollars.\u00a0 Limited liability companies played a role \u2013 they were some of his lucrative clients \u2013 but the scandal had little to do with campaign contributions per se<\/em>.<\/p>\n Why then the focus on LLCs\u2019 loophole?\u00a0 The governor has argued that the public understands little of the complexities of the various scandals and necessary reforms.\u00a0 But that\u2019s because so little public education has occurred.<\/p>\n Had the governor used the last two months to build public support for reforms, he might have had a better package of reforms to advance.\u00a0 Instead, the governor said virtually nothing about what ails Albany.\u00a0 Now at this late date he argues that he can\u2019t advance a more comprehensive package due to public ignorance.<\/p>\n Political leadership was, and still is, needed.\u00a0 Its absence is why the public debate is so diffuse.<\/p>\n As public officials move toward the end of session, now is the time to focus on the most important reforms and \u201cgrade\u201d the governor and the legislature on what they are able to accomplish.<\/p>\n The top reform is an overhaul of state ethics enforcement.\u00a0 Why did for the former Speaker and Senate Majority Leader think that they could use their power to enrich themselves?\u00a0 Because they knew that no one was watching.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t for federal prosecutors, the head of the Assembly would be Silver and the head of the Senate would be Skelos.\u00a0 Instead, they are out due to their corruption convictions.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s top ethics watchdog \u2013 the Joint Commission on Public Ethics \u2013 is a captive agency, not an independent one.\u00a0 Its commissioners are appointed by the governor and the legislative leaders.\u00a0 Its current and previous executive directors have all worked for the governor. New York State needs an independent commission, one which will enforce the law without fear of favor.<\/p>\n New York needs to limit the \u201cmoonlighting\u201d of public officials.\u00a0 State lawmakers are allowed to have outside jobs.\u00a0 Consistently, that outside employment has created conflicts for some public officials and led to scandals.\u00a0 And this problem is not just one of the legislative branch, the most recent federal subpoenas have targeted the outside employment of one of the governor\u2019s former top aides.\u00a0 New York should track the Congressional system and drastically limit the temptation of outside employment.<\/p>\n Government should operate in the open.\u00a0 New York\u2019s economic development programs are under scrutiny by federal investigators.\u00a0 Some of the legislative scandals, most notably the former Assembly Speaker\u2019s, stemmed from unaccountable agency slush funds.\u00a0 Too often, these agencies operate in secret.\u00a0 Governmental entities operate on behalf of the public; they must do so openly and accountably.<\/p>\n Campaign finance reforms are needed too.\u00a0 The LLC loophole is just one of a number of changes that should be tackled.<\/p>\n Albany\u2019s ethics reform scorecard must focus on the biggest problems and be based on performance, not rhetoric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With only nine scheduled working days until the end of the 2016 legislative session, it\u2019s a good time to review where New York is at after what is arguably the most scandal-ridden session in state history. Despite the corruption convictions of the legislature\u2019s top leaders, other legislators, and the growing federal investigations of top allies […]<\/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":[5],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","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=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1681,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}