Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Governor Cuomo
Executive Chamber
Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
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As part of this years budget agreement, you agreed to a number of changes in the states ethics laws.
And as you know, our organizations felt that the agreement, while an improvement, was inadequate to
address the full scope of the problem. The new ethics agreement did not limit the amount of outside
income an elected official can earn, which most of our groups believe was and is an essential part of any
acceptable solution.1 The recent changes will, however, add useful information to what is publicly
disclosed about lawmakers outside income in at least some cases lawmakers will now have to disclose
the names of their clients a welcome measure we strongly sought when the Public Integrity Reform Act
(PIRA) was enacted in 2011, but were unable to secure at that time. Unfortunately, the agreement did
allow for blanket exemptions from disclosure, as well as a process to exempt disclosure of individual
clients under certain circumstances.
In addition, the agreement advanced but the legislature has not yet codified a measure to punish
convicted public officials with the possible loss of their pensions even if they were in office prior to
2012. Other changes included:
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The League does not have a position on whether or not the outside income of lawmakers should be limited.
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As the bipartisan task force that drafted the federal law observed, the limits and restrictions were designed
to ensure that:
. . . Members are not using their positions of influence for personal gain or being affected by the
prospects of outside income. . . .
Moreover, it remains to be seen whether New Yorks ethics agreement actually closes a large loophole in
outside income disclosure. This loophole has allowed lawyer-legislators who are of counsel or who
dont have particular clients to be paid by law firms with clients that do big business with the state to
shield the nature, details and source of income for their work from public disclosure.
Any ethics agreement is only as good as the agencies charged with its enforcement. New Yorks ethics
enforcement entitiesJCOPE and the Legislative Ethics Commissionrequire substantial improvement.
While we agree that the additional work will require supplemental resources and are pleased that
additional funding is provided in this budget, reforms must also be enacted to ensure that these oversight
agencies can adequately protect the publics interest. We are encouraged by the appointment of the
review commission, but believe there are clear changes that could be made prior to its development of
recommendations.
New Yorkers should have every expectation that this most recent rash of ethics scandals, coming on the
heels of the criticisms of the inadequate ethics deal in the budget, would have spurred another ethics
reform effort. Unfortunately, there have been some public statements that no such additional actions are
needed.
New Yorkers deserve a serious response before legislators go home to their constituents for the summer,
not after the next ethics scandal.
Inaction in the face of the continuing ethics scandals is unacceptable. We appreciate your consideration
of these ideas and we look forward to working with you to strengthen regulation, oversight and the
enforcement of the states ethics laws.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Norden, Deputy Director,
Democracy Program
Brennan Center for Justice
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