{"id":2018,"date":"2018-02-05T17:34:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T22:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2018-02-05T17:34:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T22:34:24","slug":"new-yorks-political-culture-again-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/new-yorks-political-culture-again-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"New York’s Political Culture Again on Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past two weeks, a former top aide to governor Cuomo has been on trial for corruption.\u00a0 According to federal prosecutors, he was a key figure in a widespread bribery scheme that included shaking down those seeking government contracts for special treatment in exchange for campaign contributions and money for him and his associates.\u00a0 The trial continues and the individual is presumed innocent.\u00a0 But this trial \u2013 combined with others in recent years \u2013 offers unique insights into what ails Albany.\u00a0 There are four<\/em> overarching problems that emerge when reviewing the totality of the corruption cases brought in New York.<\/p>\n

Problem #1<\/u>: New York\u2019s Limited Liability Company campaign finance loophole raises the risk of corruption.\u00a0 The \u201cLLC Loophole,\u201d which treats each Limited Liability Company as an individual person for purposes of how much may be donated, has allowed some donors to give well over a million dollars.\u00a0 And those donors almost always have business before government.<\/p>\n

For example, in the trial against former Senate Majority Leader Skelos, one real estate developer spent more than $10 million in campaign donations since 2005 alone, funneled through 26 different limited liability companies \u2013 LLCs he controlled. \u00a0In return, that developer received tens of millions of dollars in tax benefits from the state.<\/p>\n

What should be done?\u00a0 <\/strong>LLCs should be treated like any other business entity and be subject to a $5,000 campaign contribution limit.\u00a0 All business entities should be required to disclose their controlling interests and all subsidiaries\u2019 contributions should be aggregated into one overall limit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Problem #2<\/u>: Allowing outside income for elected officials raises the risk of corruption.\u00a0 In many of the corruption cases, the opportunity to use one\u2019s public office for private gain \u2013 \u201ccashing in\u201d \u2013 emerged as a serious problem.\u00a0 In the case of former Assembly Speaker Silver, it was well-documented that he was able to use his power to amass millions of dollars in outside fees, for little work \u2013 other than applying his power as Speaker.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the former Speaker\u2019s case is not unique.\u00a0 The recent convictions of elected officials underscore how lucrative it can be for lawmakers to inappropriately use the powers of their public office for private gain.<\/p>\n

What should done?\u00a0 <\/strong>After the Watergate scandal, Congress reformed its system and placed limits on outside income for lawmakers.\u00a0 In a report, it concluded, \u201c. . . substantial outside income creates at least the appearance of impropriety and thereby undermines public confidence in the integrity of government officials.\u201d\u00a0 New York State should follow suit.\u00a0 All public officials, including those in the executive branch, must have strict limits on outside income.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Problem #3<\/u>:\u00a0 There is too great a risk of corruption in how New York awards government contracts.\u00a0 <\/strong>The investigation by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office into allegations that state contracts were rigged to benefit campaign contributors to the governor underscores the need for action in this area.\u00a0 For example, it\u2019s been alleged that Buffalo\u2019s largest construction company simultaneously paid a private lobbyist close to the governor $100,000 annually and kicked in $250,000 to Governor Cuomo\u2019s re-election campaign in 2014. \u00a0The result, according to the U.S. Attorney, was that a huge Buffalo Billion project was steered to that company.<\/p>\n

In addition to that case, Governor Cuomo\u2019s former Executive Deputy Secretary is alleged to have solicited money from \u201ccompanies with business before the State.\u201d\u00a0 In return, it is alleged, the former aide took official actions that would benefit these companies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>What should be done?\u00a0 <\/strong>The first step would be to limit campaign contributions from those seeking government contracts.\u00a0 Under New Jersey\u2019s pay-to-play law, businesses that \u201chave or are seeking\u201d government contracts are prohibited from making campaign contributions prior to receiving contracts.<\/p>\n

Second, the New York Constitution established a separately-elected State Comptroller who is charged with monitoring the state finances.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in recent years the governor and the Legislature have approved laws that have cut back the Comptroller\u2019s oversight functions, coinciding with the period in which pay-to-play activities and bid-rigging were allegedly occurring.\u00a0 Those powers should be restored.<\/p>\n

Problem #4<\/u>: Lack of independent oversight of ethics raises the risk of corruption.\u00a0 Why is it that public officials think they can get away with these, and other, corrupt actions? \u00a0Because they believe that they would not get caught.\u00a0 And if it weren\u2019t for federal investigators, they would have \u2013 in some cases did \u2013 get away with it for years.\u00a0 Ethics watchdogs must be independent \u2013 not political creatures.<\/p>\n

Yet in New York, the ethics watchdogs are direct political appointees and are not structured to be independent.\u00a0 In a 2015 comparison of state ethics laws, New York\u2019s ethics enforcement received a grade of \u201cF.\u201d<\/p>\n

What should done?\u00a0 <\/strong>The state\u2019s current ethics agencies should be abolished and replaced with a truly independent one.<\/p>\n

Each of the first seven months of this year will see the beginning of trials for new, high profile, corruption cases.\u00a0 Hopefully, New Yorkers will also see action from the governor and state lawmakers to respond to this corruption crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past two weeks, a former top aide to governor Cuomo has been on trial for corruption.\u00a0 According to federal prosecutors, he was a key figure in a widespread bribery scheme that included shaking down those seeking government contracts for special treatment in exchange for campaign contributions and money for him and his associates.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2020,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}