Now that the two leaders of the legislature have been convicted on multiple counts of corruption, government reform groups are looking to the remaining politicians at the Capitol for reform. And polls show that the public is with them.
Governor Cuomo has offered only brief remarks since the former Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, and former Senate Leader, Dean Skelos, and his son, were convicted on multiple counts of corruption including extortion and bribery for essentially selling their public positions in exchange for millions of dollars.
But the governor, who calls what both men did “indefensible”, promises to have a lot more to say in his State of the State message in January.
“I think the legislature needs serious and dramatic reform,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo says his ideas will address a loophole in campaign finance laws, which was highlighted in both corruption trials. Donors who gave money to both of the leaders skirted donation limits by masking the money through Limited Liability Corporations.
“Part of it, I think is going to be campaign finance, like the LLC loophole,” Cuomo said. “Part of it is going to be greater disclosure.”
He did not give details, though, saying he’s waiting until next month to unveil the entire plan. Cuomo has also received money from LLC’s.
Susan Lerner, with Common Cause says actually the governor does not have to wait for the legislature to agree. She says the state Board of Elections has the power to close the loophole administratively.
“The Board of Elections could do it tomorrow,” Lerner said.
The Board of Elections, with two Democratic and two Republican commissioners, has been gridlocked over the matter.
The US Attorney who successfully brought the prosecutions against the former legislative leaders, Preet Bharara, also spoke for the first time since the convictions in a broadcast, on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Bharara says he doesn’t want to prescribe specific changes that could help keep lawmakers out of trouble in the future. But he says the structure of New York’s part time legislature, which is permitted to earn outside income, was at the root of both the Silver and Skelos cases. Bharara says discussion of switching to a full time legislature should be “on the table”.
“It’s a little bit harder to get away with bribery, it’s a little bit harder to get away with extortion, if there are more strict incomes on outside income,” Bharara said. “Common sense will tell you it is much harder to disguise a bribe or a kickback as a referral, if you don’t have the ability to have the same kind of outside income.”
Governor Cuomo agrees that the issue of outside income is becoming problematic.
“That clash just continues to bring conflict after conflict after conflict,” Cuomo said. “And that is the root of a lot of this.”
But Cuomo said earlier in December that the legislature seems to have “no appetite” to change the current rules, which would require an amendment to the state’s constitution.
Whatever comes next for reform in 2016, there’s a larger question looming. What will the U.S. Attorney do next? Bharara would not say whether he is continuing investigations that relate to Governor or his administration.
“I’m not going to talk about any investigations that we have open,” Bharara said. “We have lots of investigations open.”
But the U.S. Attorney cautions, don’t read too much into that.
