February 12, 2012 · www.gothamgazette.com

Gotham Gazette
Loading
Recent Posts
NYC Blogs
Click here for a list of NYC blogs
Newsfeeds
Search This Blog

Ethics Reaction
February 8th, 2010

The Senate  failed to override Gov. David Paterson’s veto of ethics legislation by 9 votes. The tally was 35-26. A list of statements from interested parties follows.

Here is the statement from Sen. Eric Schneiderman:

“Just days after unanimously voting for the most sweeping ethics reform bill in a generation, the Senate Republicans have voted to maintain Albany’s status quo. It is extremely disappointing that we are now going back to the negotiating table empty-handed.

“The Republicans voted against requiring greater disclosure from lobbyists and lobbying clients, against creating an investigative body for legislative ethics, against restoring independent commissions for the executive branch and lobbying, against providing greater information regarding legislators’ outside sources of income, and against empowering the New York State Board of Elections to enforce campaign finance laws and increase the penalties for campaign finance violations.

“On nearly every measure – transparency, disclosure, accountability, enforcement – our ethics reform bill represented an across-the-board improvement over the status quo. It was supported by NYPIRG, the League of Women Voters and Citizens Union. We all recognize that the bill may not have fixed everything that’s wrong with the culture of Albany, but it provided the foundation needed to begin the next round of ethics and campaign finance reforms. Unfortunately, we now have to start from scratch.

“I sponsor a whole host of reform bills that go further – including S.6794 and S.6795 – but it was a mistake not to lock in the gains from this bill before moving forward. Enacting significant ethics reform is my top legislative priority this year, and we must waste no time before restarting negotiations in order to deliver the reform that New Yorkers deserve.”

Here is the statement from Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos:

“Rather than use the Governor’s veto of an ethics reform bill as an opportunity to publicly negotiate a better, stronger measure, Legislative Democrats tried to ram through an override so a weaker bill they settled for in secret, would be enacted into law.

As new ethics reform proposals are put forward, we should proceed with negotiations in an effort to improve a bill that so many say falls short of the mark. Every newspaper in the state weighed in against overriding the Governor’s veto and called for negotiations to produce a better bill. Good government groups, such as Common Cause, have had a similar response and the New York City Bar Association has also called for improvements that should be included.

Last week, Governor Paterson reached out to Democrats and Republicans and called for a meeting to negotiate a better ethics bill. As far as I am aware, I am the only legislative leader that accepted his invitation.

No one advocated for this bill to be rushed into law by an override, other than Democrats in the Senate and Assembly. Especially when Governor Paterson has introduced a new ethics reform bill and the original bill’s sponsor, Senator Schneiderman, says he is also introducing a new ethics reform plan.

Senate Republicans attempted to improve the ethics reform bill by offering three amendments, all of which were rejected by the Senate Democrats.

Throughout the process, Democrats have said the vetoed bill was the best they could do. While that bill was a first step towards reform, we owe it to the people to use this opportunity to do even better.”

Here is the statement from Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson:

“For the second time in six months, Senate Republicans have killed ethics reform in Albany. They have once again asked New Yorkers to do as I say and forget what I do, while special interests have tightened their stranglehold on Albany. Today, they squeezed the life out of the change New Yorkers have been waiting for.

For forty years special interest money had a stranglehold on our democracy, and taxpayers paid the price with higher taxes, record unemployment, and a long, sad string of broken promises.

New Yorkers have a right to be angry, and today’s vote by the Senate Minority is yet another example of how entrenched politicians and the special interests who fund them stand in the way of the hopes and dreams of regular New Yorkers.

The time for change has come. I had hoped today’s vote would be the first break in the Albany logjam, but the Senate Minority continued their history of building walls to exclude regular New Yorkers and block reform.

While Senate Republicans ran New York into fiscal disaster, Senate Democrats ran to change New York, and we will not allow those who turn their back on ethics reform to stand in the way of the change New Yorkers deserve.”

New York Public Interest Group:

“We applaud those lawmakers who voted in support of ethics reform.  Let’s be clear, a vote “no” on the override is a vote against ethics reform.”

By David King on February 8, 2010, 6:46 pm
In category: Albany, Eye on Albany | No Comments »

| More

RSS Feed RSS Feed


Leave a Reply


RSS Feed