Moreland Commission Issues Preliminary Report

Last night, the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption released its preliminary report.  (Read the Commission’s press release, and the full report.)

Governor Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission report is a scathing assessment of Albany’s culture of corruption.  It provides an update on its ongoing investigations, and makes a number of reform recommendations.

Among the legislative recommendations are the following:

• enacting a system of public campaign financing for statewide elections
• lowering campaign contribution limits;
• closing the “LLC” and the “party housekeeping account” loopholes;
• requiring greater disclosure and monitoring of “independent expenditures”;
• improving the state’s bribery laws; and
• greater criminal penalties for crimes that violate the public trust.

Seven of the 25 Commission members “dissented” from the public financing recommendation, noting that the Commission did not “cite any persuasive evidence that public financing reduces the kinds of public corruption that spawned this Commission.”

Gov. Cuomo released the following statement upon the report’s release:

“I want to thank the Commission members and staff for their dedication and public service, and look forward to reviewing the Commission’s findings in detail and continuing to work with the legislature to enact systemic reform.”

Read news coverage from the NY Times, Capital NY, the Times Union, Gannett, the Daily News, the NY Post and WAMC.

Daily News columnist Bill Hammond says that the Commission – and its report — fells short of what’s needed.

Read more reactions to the Moreland Commission report here.