Will Ethics Reform be on the Legislature’s 2016 Agenda?

City & State NY looks ahead to the 2016 legislative session, and says that after the leaders of both houses were charged with public corruption crimes in 2015 “new scrutiny from the public has pushed ethics reform to the forefront.”

The article looks at the possibility that the LLC loophole will be addressed, and that the Legislature will take final action regarding a pension reform measure that would “strip retirement benefits from public officials who are convicted on corruption charges.”

With respect to the LLC loophole, the Assembly approved a bill this past session, but the Senate did not act on it.

As to pension reform, the Senate approved a measure that was included in the budget agreement. The Assembly, where members expressed concern that the language was too broad and would apply to all government employees, passed a narrower version of the original bill.