As the election staggers across the finish line, the question for New Yorkers is what next?\u00a0 At the state level, Governor Cuomo weighed in to support legislative candidates who embraced his agenda.\u00a0 The governor went so as far as to circulate a questionnaire to candidates quizzing them on their support for ethics law changes, asking their position on limiting lawmakers\u2019 outside income and stricter campaign contribution requirements for Limited Liability Companies (LLCs).<\/p>\n
Urging reforms in those two areas are mightily important.\u00a0 The loophole that allows those controlling Limited Liability Companies to donate essentially unlimited amounts of campaign contributions is an example of the loophole that swallows the law.<\/p>\n
That loophole is based on a decision by the New York State Board of Elections \u2013 there is nothing on the law on this \u2013 that says that LLCs should be treated differently from other companies and allowed contribution limits that far exceed those for corporations.\u00a0 Corporations, for example, are limited to no more than $5,000 annually in campaign contributions.\u00a0 LLCs each can donate as much as $60,000 for candidates for governor and more to other candidates. \u00a0For them, essentially the sky is the limit.<\/p>\n
Real estate developers in particular, have used the LLC loophole to donate enormous sums.\u00a0 The network of LLCs controlled by real estate tycoon Leonard Litwin (who controls scores of LLCs) has admitted to contributing over $10 million in this way.<\/p>\n
Given that LLCs have become the \u201choney pot\u201d of campaign contributions for elected officials, they are also found at the heart of some of the state\u2019s most recent political scandals.\u00a0 In the cases that led to the convictions of the former Senate Majority Leader and the former Assembly Speaker, LLCs were used to enrich both men and their families.<\/p>\n
Allowing lawmakers to \u201cmoonlight\u201d \u2013 have jobs outside of their legislative ones also can create temptations for officials to trade on their public offices to enrich themselves personally.\u00a0 Again, in both cases of the former legislative leaders, the corruption conviction stemmed from their efforts to use their public offices for personal gain.<\/p>\n
But the needed ethics reforms go beyond merely closing the LLC loophole and limiting outside income for lawmakers.\u00a0 The allegations and convictions of corruption in state government are so widespread that additional reforms are needed.<\/p>\n
The investigation into apparent misconduct by top aides to the governor and his close allies underscore the need for real changes in the way the state\u2019s contracts are awarded \u2013 bringing much greater openness and accountability to state contracting is a must.<\/p>\n
The investigations into the state\u2019s contracting also identified allegations of a \u201cpay-to-play\u201d system in which government contracts were allegedly awarded to big campaign donors.\u00a0 As a candidate for governor, Andrew Cuomo advanced a proposal to place new, strict, and lower campaign contribution limits on those seeking and receiving government contracts.<\/p>\n
Since becoming governor, however, little has been done to advance that plan.<\/p>\n
Also, all of these investigations were brought by federal prosecutors, not state ethics watchdogs.\u00a0 It is clear that overhaul of these entities must be part of a reform agenda.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s leading ethics watchdogs for the executive branch, lobbying, the legislative branch, and campaign finance system are far too beholden to the political elites that run the state.\u00a0 Truly independent watchdogs are needed.\u00a0 And these agencies must be directed by individuals who are empowered and protected to enforce the law without fear or favor.<\/p>\n
To clean up the mess of unprecedented corruption that has, sadly, become the hallmark of New York State government, Governor Cuomo needs a comprehensive approach and use all of the tools he\u2019s been given to boost ethical standards and public confidence.<\/p>\n
In 2010, then-candidate Cuomo launched his campaign for governor on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse, pledging to reform Albany.\u00a0 Since then he has talked grandly, but has simply not accomplished enough.<\/p>\n
New Yorkers have heard enough talk about reform, now is the time to actually deliver on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the election staggers across the finish line, the question for New Yorkers is what next?\u00a0 At the state level, Governor Cuomo weighed in to support legislative candidates who embraced his agenda.\u00a0 The governor went so as far as to circulate a questionnaire to candidates quizzing them on their support for ethics law changes, asking […]<\/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-1772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772","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=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1773,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions\/1773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}