Governor Gives the Legislature an Ultimatum on Ethics, Campaign Finance Reform (Updated)
This afternoon, Gov. Cuomo outlined his ethics and campaign finance reform agenda for the 2015 legislative session at the NYU Law School. [Watch video and read a transcript of the event.] His call for reform comes in the wake of the arrest of former Speaker Sheldon Silver on federal corruption charges,
The Governor said that he will insist that the Legislature enact the following five reforms:
- “Total disclosure” of legislator’s outside income of legislators, including who is paying the legislator and what the payment is for;
- A constitutional amendment that requires public officials convicted of corruption to forfeit their public pensions;
- Reform the legislative per diem system, to require that per diems be used only for actual or necessary costs;
- Prohibit campaign funds from being used for non-campaign purposes;
- Enact campaign finance reform, including public financing of elections, closing the LLC and housekeeping account loopholes, and requiring more frequent and detailed filings by Independent Expenditure committees.
These proposals are not new. But what is new is that the Governor also said that he will not approve a state budget unless it includes a strong reform component. In essence, the Governor has said that he is willing to shut down state government if the Legislature does not agree to enact significant reforms.
Read coverage from the New York Times, the Daily News, Gannett, Capital New York and Newsday.
Update: The Gotham Gazette reports that what the Governor is demanding from the Legislature is not as clear as I had thought:
“Many advocates thought that meant enacting a system of public financing of elections is part of Cuomo’s ultimatum, but documents Cuomo’s press office handed out do not list a public financing system as part of his ultimatum, nor do they list closure of the state’s LLC loophole. It is said that this is because they are both already part of the governor’s budget proposal.”