News Clips

Nearly a quarter of state lawmakers could be forced to give up their outside employment or divest from their businesses before the end of the year if they want to hold on to their seats, according to a new analysis by the good government group Common Cause New York.

A misleadingly-named Good Government and Ethics Reform law proposed by Cuomo in his executive budget includes a provision in Part R that would reduce the threshold of money allowed to be spent on advocacy work from $5,000 to $500 before triggering the need to register as a lobbyist.

“In the United States, we have codified and legalized what in other countries would be considered corruption,” said Sarah Goff, associate director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group that has long called for the closing of the LLC loophole.

Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner cited Crain's findings that, according to campaign finance documents and other official records, Hamilton has used a residential building at 284 New York Ave. in Brooklyn belonging to the block association as the base of his political operations for more than a decade, in violation of zoning and occupancy rules.