Richard Brodsky on Ethics Reform

NY Capitol News has a thought-provoking opinion piece by former Assemblyman and 2010 Attorney General Candidate Richard Brodsky entitled “Thinking Hard About Ethics Reform.”

He suggests that we need to cut through the overblown rhetoric to get the real issues facing New York State:

“Our problems are not, in the end, problems of immorality and corruption.  We’re in a long-term economic decline, there are enormous disparities of wealth and power, and our most successful private economic institutions gambled away our prosperity. None of that changes when we make important but marginal changes in disclosure laws. We should do it, but then get back to the job of making the difficult decisions that lie ahead.”

As a public official, Mr. Brosky could be a divisive figure.  Whether or not you like him, he provides some important perspective about the nature of the ethics reform debate.