Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed an ethics reform agenda Monday to address what he called “a golden age of graft” among legislators.
Schneiderman called for barring lawmakers from making outside income, saying measures to force greater disclosure don’t go far enough.
Instead, Schneiderman would raise the current $79,500 base pay for lawmakers to between the $112,500 paid to New York City Council members and the $174,000 those in Congress receive.
He’d also do away with the flat $172 daily travel expense state lawmakers are paid. Instead, lawmakers would be reimbursed for expenses they actually incurred.
Hoping to stop “non-stop re-election fund-raising and campaigning,” Schneiderman pushed to change the state Constitution to make legislative terms four years, instead of the current two.
He’s also calling for campaign finance reform that would include the public financing of campaigns, “dramatically reduced” contribution limits and closing of loopholes that allow some donors to give basically unlimited amounts.
16 comments:
So the idea to stop corruption is to give electeds more money. I don't think this incentive is going to stop corruption. Most of these people may be already influenced by their financial backers. And you never know what's in the recesses of these people's minds and their true motives since they are different people when they campaign.
Yes! And the fox said he has a new plan for guarding the hen house
Unless there are term limits, nothing will change. No viable candidates will challenge an incumbent legislators. It's hard to raise funds to run against a sitting pol.
Isn't it funny how ethics 'reform' involves drastically increasing their pay?
If the idea is that the 'low' salary and the need for outside sources of income leads to corruption how about running the corrupt out of government and having the 'honest' run the government.
Any reform needs to start with aggressive investigation and punishing of the corrupt. This looks like giving most of them a free pass and paying them more.
They will soon find out that it is never enough. You can quadruple their salary, they will still take 'consulting fees' and steer taxpayer dollars to their buddies.
They aren't corrupt because they have a low salary. They are corrupt because they are low life degenerates who never had to earn an honest dollar in their lives.
And lets be real, the vast majority of people would LOVE to be underpaid at $79,500.
They know how much the job pays. If they can't make it on that they should bring their 'talents' to the private sector. Let them see how long they can last there.
To go into effect before or after his run for governor?
Unless there are term limits, nothing will change. No viable candidates will challenge an incumbent legislators. It's hard to raise funds to run against a sitting pol.
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http://www.qgazette.com/news/2015-03-11/Front_Page/CALDC_Celebrates_35th_Anniversary.html
Hot off the press from Vallonia - (1) library trustee who was forcibly removed from board (and once headed civic for a community destroyed while he was in office) with (2) has-been term-limited politician who will run again for council on front page of local paper.
Even limiting term limits will not cleanse that community's septic political culture.
Term limits for every lawmaker, from NYC to Washington DC!
Who! Wait a minute! You mean the likes of Moby Stavisky can go from 79Gs to 179Gs a year? She needs to go on a diet right now. Cut her salary! Cut her food intake. How much does she get from her North Flushing Senior Center?
Albany corruption is a three card Monte operation: When one table is disrupted, it only reappears with more ammunition somewhere else. This is reform? This is news? It's Bait And Switch 101! The arrogance is colossal, and the cowardice is unprecedented. Is there a shortage of honest, ethical workers in the rank and file who would reject $79,500 a year? In Queens County alone, I can barely name a half dozen households whose combined gross or net incomes top their single, taxpayer-funded compensation!!! When publicly elected representatives begin to live and be paid with much higher wages and benefits that their purported constituency, then corruption is alive and well (again and still). I am sorry to burst your bubble, Eric Schneiderman, but paying publicly elected representatives more money that is not commensurate with productivity and outcome (that they don't even deliver at the current rate), is not how Supply And Demand economics is modeled to work. More examples of false, fake and failed leadership on the public, cradle-to-grave payrolls of epic failure. We already have a governor who embodies these smoke and mirror tricks that maintain New York's economic malaise. Why even bother, Mr. Attorney General?
Corrupt Albany has a long history of chicanery going back to our Civil War days. The state Capitol is hidden far away in the boondocks where apple bonking farmers don't give a crap about anything but their farm goods. Relocate the Capitol in NYC.... into the harsh urban daylight where cockroaches cannot hide . The hole in the wall gang has been getting away with murder upstate for too damn long!.
Relocate the Capitol in NYC.... into the harsh urban daylight where cockroaches cannot hide . The hole in the wall gang has been getting away with murder upstate for too damn long!--------------------------------------
You must be severely limited, intellectually, if you think NYC is some sort of urban bastion of political integrity. I hope you don't vote.
Reform is easy if you start to go after your Albany rep by name demanding that they submit effective reform legislation.
Go ahead. Act like an adult around them. You are paying their salary.
Jerry Rotondi said...
"Term limits for every lawmaker, from NYC to Washington DC!"
Amen Jerry !
What about the Moreland Commission? Are we now to forget that it ever existed? That it was destroyed because it was uncovering too much corruption? Is anyone investigating that? We are not THAT dumb.
He can begin by firing himself.
What about the Moreland Commission? Are we now to forget that it ever existed? That it was destroyed because it was uncovering too much corruption? Is anyone investigating that? We are not THAT dumb.
Yes, his name is Preet Bharara.
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