Last week we witnessed the fall of yet another disgraced New York state politician. Former speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver joined the ranks of the more than 30 state officials who have been indicted or accused of a crime in the last decade. Silver’s high-profile arrest casts a spotlight on corruption in New York state politics, all but forcing Gov. Andrew Cuomo to respond.
And he certainly did respond. Cuomo challenged the New York State Legislature to enact meaningful reform, suggesting that they either prohibit lawmakers from earning outside income, or enact new rules for disclosing outside pay. Cuomo also called for tighter controls on how legislators can use their expense allowances and campaign funds. In a clear reference to Assemblyman Silver, Cuomo insisted that lawmakers disclose all of the work that they do outside of their legislative offices, in addition to naming all of their legal clients and their clients’ interests before the government.
While this enthusiasm from Cuomo is certainly refreshing, it was nowhere to be found during his “State of the State” address, which took place only days before Silver’s arrest. In the speech, Cuomo dedicated only 80 seconds to what he described as “the need to restore public trust.” It is hard to imagine that Cuomo could not find more time in his hour-plus speech to discuss an issue that should be important to all New York voters in the wake of frequent scandals and indictments of state officials.
While Cuomo’s proposal certainly sounds promising, it is important to remember what happened to his last attempt at stamping out corruption. In response to a torrent of scandals in New York state politics, Cuomo introduced the Moreland Commission and gave it the power to investigate political corruption in New York state. Cuomo touted the Moreland Commission in TV ads as proof of his determination to wipe out corruption in Albany. Yet, less than a year after he created the commission, Cuomo replaced the fanfare and lofty speeches surrounding the commission with an announcement that he would disband it, stating that newly passed laws had accomplished his goal of systemic reform. If Cuomo’s first answer to corruption could be disbanded, his new proposal could certainly suffer the same fate.
Cuomo’s recent proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, but Silver’s case shows that Cuomo’s goal of systemic reform has a long way to go. If he truly does want to clean up state politics and restore the public’s trust, he must start by reinstating the Moreland Commission, no matter what it may find. Until then, the questions surrounding his dedication to stamping out corruption cannot be discounted.