Here we go again, but this time the long shadow cast by the state capital in Albany has stopped at the Queens border — on the Nassau side, for a change.
The indictment of state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on charges of extorting $200,000 to generate commissions for his son is the latest episode in a long-running saga on corruption already written by several Queens legislators.
The Rockville Center Republican gave up his leadership position under heavy pressure from Democrats in Queens and other parts of the state but held onto his seat. If Skelos is forced to leave office, the GOP will lose its one-seat majority in the upper chamber.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bahara has trained his guns on the notoriously dysfunctional legislature in Albany, bagging Sheldon Silver, the powerful Brooklyn chief of the Assembly, on fraud and extortion charges. The only man left standing among the Three Men in a Room who ran Albany is Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But Cuomo’s decision to dismantle the Mooreland Commission, which he set up to investigate public corruption, has drawn fire from Bahara.
Queens may be watching the Skelos and Silver cases from the sidelines, but the borough is still a player in the seedy Albany scene. Former Sen. Malcolm Smith, once a Democratic majority leader from Jamaica, will be sentenced in July after being convicted on federal bribery and extortion charges.
State Assemblyman Bill Scarborough of Jamaica has pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds and the $154 per diem travel vouchers given to legislators. Southeast Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills is fighting charges he took campaign funds for his own personal use, while former state Sen. Shirley Huntley — his old boss – completed her jail term a year ago for stealing taxpayers’ money to go shopping.
Moving north, former Bayside City Councilman Dan Halloran got 10 years for bribery in the same case that ended Smith’s political career.
The culture in Albany is a petrie dish for breeding dishonesty. Scarborough explained his behavior by saying lawmakers were poorly paid in Albany at a base salary of $79,500 a year. Then why not find a real job in the private sector?
Lost in this list of errant lawmakers is the role of public service to promote the public trust, which is corroded by corruption. As long as legislators continue to see Albany as a place to cash in and hide the loot, Queens voters will remain disillusioned and stay home on Election Day. Bahara has his work cut out for him.
