Senate Democrats to Hold “Interactive” Forum on Ethics Reform

The Senate’s Democratic minority is holding a public forum on reforming the state’s ethics laws in Albany tomorrow, and they are encouraging participation through the Internet.

The following legislation will be discussed at the forum:

• Establishing an independent commission government ethics commission that would have jurisdiction over the Executive and Legislative branches of state government (S.31, Squadron);
• Increasing financial and client disclosure requirements for legislators and staff, and requiring the disclosure of public officials’ business dealings with lobbyists (S.382, Rivera);
• Authorizing a civil action to deny an elected official convicted of public corruption their pension (S.2333, Krueger);
• Specifies the permissible use of campaign funds and establishing rules for the disposal of campaign funds once the elected official has left office (S.3053, Krueger); and
• Prohibiting businesses that have state contracts from making political contributions (“pay-to-play”) (S.1565, Addabbo).

To watch the forum, go to www.livestream.com/nysendems.  Senate staff will also be “tweetcasting” through  www.twitter.com/nysendems.

Viewers can submit questions by tweeting (@NYSenDems) or by using the hashtags #AlbanyEthics and #NYSenate.

establish rules and methods for the disposal of excess
campaign funds