Common Cause/NY is the citizen's lobbyist and we speak up for clean elections and ethical standards for our elected officials. We stand up for responsive government. For years, we've provided a clear, strong voice for you and the citizens of New York.
Common Cause/NY is a non-partisan, non-profit citizens' lobby and a leading force in the battle for honest and accountable government. In the past three decades, by fighting together we have enacted real change and will continue to do so in New York and nationally.
Here in New York, we've been roiled over during April and May, 2008, by repeated revelations of huge amounts of public money paid out at the sole discretion of an individual elected official. Over $350 million in the New York City budget is controlled by individual City Council members, state legislators' member control items totaling almost $140 million, and over $1 billion in the state budget is controlled by the Governor and legislative leaders for discretionary "capital projects."
Elected officials like to call these amounts "discretionary funds." At Common Cause/New York, like other members of the public and the press, we call them what they are: slush funds.
If you, like we, believe that public money shouldn't be doled out at the whim of individual elected officials... If you, like we, think there shouldn't be any more slush funds at the City or the State level, you CAN do something about it!
CCNY on NY1 Tonight, Live at 9pm
Susan Lerner will be the guest on tonight’s New York 1 viewer call-in show, “The Call.” The show will air live at 9pm.
Susan will be fielding questions related to recent disclosures about NY City Council’s less-than-exemplary, and sometimes illegal, handling of its discretionary slush funds. Two Council staffers have been indicted, and an ongoing investigation is examining the accounting practices used at least as far back as the tenure of Peter Vallone, Sr. in the Council Speaker’s chair. New revelations about these slush funds are unearthed every day, including this week’s look at how the Mayor’s Officehas utilized these discretionary funds.
You can expect Susan to take a firm stand against the practice of Council Members acting as the sole gatekeeper between City funds and service organizations in their district, so be sure to tune in!
Groups Throughout the State to Descend on Albany for Reform Day 2008
April 23: Join Common Cause and dozens of other groups from throughout the state to call on the state legislature to enact immediate deep-seeded reforms.
Jump on the bus on April 29 to hear from special guest speakers, sit down personally with your state legislator, and push for badly-needed changes in New York State.
The test for when it is proper to hire a relative to work on a campaign, said one government watchdog, is asking whether the relative is chosen because he or she provides a necessary and particular skill, or is just a family member who could use some work.
“Certainly, having a relative as a campaign manager is something that happens a lot,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of New York Common Cause, a nonprofit lobbying group that promotes open government. “I think that’s a question of trust. But when there are other roles, the question always is: Is there value for the money, or is this just another way to divert campaign funds for personal use?”
News Corp. Goes After Newsday, Common Cause NY Responds
Common Cause/NY was featured in both Newsday and the International Herald Tribune, after issuing a statement regarding the recent move by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy New York's Newsday. Below is the full statement:
“Our democracy requires a diverse and robust media to both hold politicians accountable and provide citizens with the information they need to make informed decisions. Further consolidation of the media in the New York area is a step back that will hurt our democracy. In the New York media market, Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate already owns The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, two TV stations, The Times Ledger family of newspapers in Queens, and the Courier-Life Papers in Brooklyn. Murdoch is well known to be aggressive in making his news outlets promote a particular political bias. New Yorkers do not want fewer viewpoints and sources of information – we want and need more. This merger should be stopped by the FCC as a violation of its new, weakened media ownership rules. Additionally, Congress needs to roll back these new, weakened rules which allow more media consolidation. Congress should defend democracy by telling the FCC that it needs to work for less concentration of the media, not more.”
