It’s Time to End NY Corruption
It's Time to End NY Corruption
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Common Cause New York. We’ve criss-crossed the state with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – from New York City and Mineola to Rochester and Buffalo – to support the End New York Corruption Now Act.
It’s been a busy time for the state legislature as well, but despite the overwhelming support among New Yorkers (92% of whom say corruption is a serious problem) their end of session priorities don’t include further ethics reforms. Notwithstanding the Assembly’s passage of the bill and loud calls by thousands of New Yorkers to stop the virtually limitless flow of special interest campaign cash by closing the LLC loophole, the Senate has refused to bring the bill to a vote.
Attorney General Schneiderman has put forward the End New York Corruption Now Act, a comprehensive ethics and money in politics reform package that includes a number of reforms that we’ve long supported. The bill includes reforms to the legislature, such as four-year terms and a full-time legislature, so that our elected officials can focus solely on their job of representing us, not courting big money interests. It also includes many proposals to get money out of politics that we have led the charge on, from closing the LLC loophole to creating a public financing system and lowering campaign contribution limits. In addition, the End New York Corruption Now Act would eliminate party housekeeping accounts, which Common Cause New York has proposed and analyzed in depth.
Attorney General Schneiderman was right when he said, “New Yorkers have had enough of so-called ethics reform that tinkers around the edges.” The End New York Corruption Now Act is a set of real, comprehensive reforms that the state legislature and Governor Cuomo must enact as soon as possible. But we can’t do it alone.
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