Attorney General Proposes Comprehensive Ethics, Campaign Finance Reforms

At a forum in Manhattan hosted by the good government group Citizens Union, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman offered a series of proposals that he said will “cure the disease” of public corruption in Albany.

While many of his proposals are not new, some of what he is proposing (such as a complete ban on outside legislator income) go much further than Governor Cuomo has proposed.

The Attorney General’s proposals to improve ethics in Albany include:

• banning all outside employment income for legislators;
• increasing legislative salaries to between what City Council members earn ($112,000 per year) and members of Congress earn ($174,000 per year), and providing automatic cost of living increases going forward;
• replacing the current per diem system with one in which actual travel and lodging costs are reimbursed;
• extending legislative terms from two to four years (which would require a constitutional amendment);
• changing legislative rules to empower individual legislators;
• providing the Attorney General with concurrent jurisdiction over public corruption crimes; and
• enacting a felony-level crime of “Undisclosed Self-Dealing” to target public officials who further their own financial self-interest.

The Attorney General also proposed a comprehensive overhaul of New York’s campaign finance system, including:

• creating a system of public matching funds;
• reducing campaign contribution limits;
• closing the LLC loophole;
• eliminating housekeeping committees;
• limiting campaign contributions from entities that do business with the State, their executives, and paid lobbyists; and
• strengthening Election Law enforcement.

Link to the Attorney General’s press release, and to the full text of his speech.

Read news coverage from the New York Times, the Buffalo News, the Wall Street Journal, and Capital New York.