Issue Position: Public Corruption

Issue Position

It's been said that you can pass as many laws as you want but if criminals are intent on committing crimes, laws won't stop them.

That's as true of violent street crime as it is of public corruption. As a former prosecutor, I know that for a fact.

But that doesn't mean that we can afford to turn our backs on the ability of tough laws to act as deterrents. And we don't.

Sadly, public corruption has taken front and center stage in New York State government far too often over the past decade and, especially, throughout the past year. Despite the existing, numerous laws and rules that have long been in place to prevent public corruption, there remain public officials who ignore these laws and break the public trust.

After each and every instance of another public official being convicted of another crime which tears down the public trust, the public outcry for more reform and tougher laws are more than understandable and warranted.

This session, the Legislature and Governor Cuomo reached agreement and enacted into law a new, 5-point Ethics Reform Plan to enact stricter election, lobbying and enforcement laws.

I'm especially pleased that this law finally includes an action that the Senate Majority took for the first time last year: if elected officials and other, high-level public policymakers break the public trust and are convicted of corruption, they will be stripped of their public pension benefits.

The law also puts in place a first-in-the-nation action to rein in the power of the independent expenditure campaigns which have proliferated since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Under this law, independent spending groups may not be formed by candidates or run by the candidate's family members or former staffers. Independent spenders will be required to report the identity of anyone exerting control over their organization, as well as any former staffers and immediate family members of candidates. In short, it enacts the strictest anti-coordination law in America.

Other points of this year's Ethics Reform Law include:

> first-time disclosure requirements for political consultants;

> lobbying disclosure reforms;

> issue advocacy reforms.

This year's action will overhaul the New York State lobbying, ethics and public officer's law. Disclosure requirements for lobbyists are being strengthened and penalties for lobbying violations are becoming tougher.

Furthermore, for the first time, political consultants who provide services to sitting elected officials or candidates for elected office and who also have clients with business before the state or local governments must register with the state and disclose these clients.

There are some who will continue to argue that the one and only answer to public corruption is for New York State to move from a part-time citizen Legislature to a full-time legislative institution.

I disagree. In fact, I believe the last thing New York's citizens can afford is the creation of a full-time, highly paid political class (because, believe me, if this Legislature were to ever go to full time you can bet that the first thing to follow would be a massive pay raise for these "full-time" legislators).

I'll pose it as a question: Do New York State's citizens and taxpayers want a full-time legislative/political class which does nothing else but sit around all day, all year long, trying to justify their new profession by feeling compelled to come up with new laws, new ways to spend (and collect) taxpayer dollars, new taxes, new fees, new regulations, new mandates, new you name it.

Isn't New York State, under a part-time Legislature, already overtaxing, overspending, overregulating and overlegislating? What do you think would happen under a full-time Legislature?

There are laws and rules in place that every single state legislator must abide by in order to earn and keep the public trust. When those laws and rules are violated, the public officials who do the violating must be punished to the fullest extent.

We've strengthened our ethics laws and rules this year, and we will keep strengthening them as necessary.

But a full-time Legislature, from my experience and in my view, would not be a cure for public corruption. Equally important, it would not be a positive development for New York State's citizens and taxpayers.

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