Governor Links Ethics, Campaign Finance Reform to Budget

As he promised earlier this month, Gov. Cuomo has included a number of ethics and campaign finance reforms in his 30-day amendments.  (Most of the language is in a new Part Q of the Public Protection/General Government Article VII bill. There is also a new, freestanding pension forfeiture proposal to amend the State Constitution.)

Gov. Cuomo said:

“We must prove once again that state government can be trusted, and that means passing tough new ethics laws and creating a system that deters, detects and punishes individuals who seek to abuse and corrupt. We must bring sunlight to ethical shadows. New Yorkers deserve nothing less.”

By linking his reform proposals to the budget, the Governor is trying to force the Legislature to make a deal, or else risk a government shutdown.

They Governor’s proposed reforms include:

• New disclosure requirements under which public officials would be required to disclose all outside earned income they receive, from whom they receive it, the actual services performed to receive the income and whether there is any connection to the state government or the office that they hold and the work performed;
• A constitutional amendment to deny public official who are convicted of public corruption their pensions;
• Reforming the system of legislative per diems to provide that legislators and statewide elected officials would receive reimbursement only of reasonable and necessary travel expenses that are actually incurred; and
• Requiring greater disclosure of independent political expenditures.

Read news coverage from the Times Union and the Journal News.