Dubbed the most dysfunctional legislature in the country, Albany was dealt another blow to its reputation when long-time Queens Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio was arrested on federal charges for alleged influence peddling. However, from the darkest of clouds, rays of hope can emerge.
If handled properly and immediately, recent lapses can provide the impetus for the real ethical reform our State Legislature needs and the people demand.
Gone are the defunct State Ethics Commission and State Lobbying Commission, replaced by the new Commission on Public Integrity. Yet the problems persist because they are allowed to grow, hidden from the microscope of public review. The majority of the more than two hundred State Legislators remain within the law and behave as any person of public stature should, but they too have had to endure the muddying of their reputation because the deceitful actions of a few are far more sensational than the dedicated service of many.
The way to remedy this imbalance and ensure that problems are not able to linger to a point of complete public distrust of government is to enact full disclosure of outside income and substantially more restrictive ethical standards.
The annual salary for members of the State Assembly is just under $80,000, excluding allotments for committee participation and chairs. While that is not an insignificant sum - above the average income in the state - it is by no means substantial for someone living in New York when you take into account travel and the need to maintain dual residencies.
Further, their salary, which has not been raised or adjusted for cost of living in nearly a decade, is not on par with equivalent office holders throughout the country; and certainly not commensurate with the responsibility of an elected official. Therefore, the desire to hold another job is understandable, but there should be restrictions and public oversight.
Under campaign finance laws recently passed by the New York City Council, all organizations doing business with the city are placed on a list, and campaign contributions from individuals associated with those organizations are severely limited.
A similar list can be created for the State Legislature whereby its members are restricted from receiving any outside income for services provided to those organizations listed as doing business with the state. In addition to a ban on direct employment by a business on the list, members of the Legislature would be excluded from generating income for legal services provided to a firm which represents one of those businesses. A Legislator would not be prevented from earning a salary through other employment unless that organization from which the salary was derived was listed as having business with the State. Such a measure would drastically reduce the possibility of a conflict of interest and ensure that a legislator’s private and public jobs never intertwined.
Another safeguard against impropriety would be the enactment of full disclosure rules for any and all sources of outside income. Regardless of the amount of money generated through a Legislator’s alternative employment, public disclosure of the source and amount of the income would dispel any aspersions of misconduct. There is nothing wrong with earning an outside income, provided the public is able to have full knowledge of where that money is coming from and how much is being earned.
Is this a double standard that the average citizen would not be subjected to? Yes. But the safeguards I have suggested are not just for the public’s own good, but for the office holders too, the vast majority of whom are honest, dedicated public servants who are painted with the broad brush of mistrust due to the actions of a few.
Real reform, real action, real progress seldom exists under a cloud of secrecy. Tougher restrictions, greater transparency and vastly improved oversight will diminish the frequency of indiscretion and allow those elected officials with the proper intentions to accomplish the goals they were elected to achieve. Democracy is not and has never been an exercise conducted by individuals, but by the collective strength of a chorus of voices and united hands. Politicians, like any other people, are fallible, but an unwillingness to correct those inadequacies and restore the public’s faith in their government is inexcusable.
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