Cuomo Aide Suggests Alternative to Financial Disclosure Statements

Larry Schwartz, Secretary to Governor Cuomo, said in a radio interview today that the state’s requirement that appointees to state boards and commissions file a financial disclosure statement has been an “impediment” to recruiting people to the unpaid posts.

State law requires most state appointees (those paid in excess of a job rate of SG-24, or in designated as a policy-maker) to file an annual statement of financial disclosure.

As an alternative, Schwartz suggested that a more narrow “conflicts check,” as opposed to requiring appointees to disclose specific information about their finances.

He said:

“Yes, we have to be transparent and we have to be open and we have to avoid conflicts of interest.  I’m not sure requiring people to fill out a financial disclosure statement is necessary addresses the issue of conflicts of interest and maybe one of the things we need to look at is creating a conflicts form to fill out rather than having to disclose your entire life.”

This may be one of the “tweaks” to the state’s ethics law that the Governor is considering.  The ethics and lobbying laws were most recently overhauled in 2011.