Report blasts Albany ethics
ALBANY – A scathing 98-page report released Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's anti-corruption panel detailed a "pay-to-play political culture driven by large checks" in Albany, but withheld specifics as its inquiry into public corruption continues.
In its report, the Moreland Commission laid out a pattern of corruption at the state Capitol driven by major donors, loophole-filled rules and "anemic enforcement of the weak laws we have on the books."
The report, however, doesn't name names. While it details a number of corrupt, potentially illegal acts, identifying information was held back in many areas to avoid "compromising the integrity and confidentiality" of its ongoing investigations, according to the document.
"What we can describe, though, is deplorable conduct, some of it perfectly legal yet profoundly wrong; some of it potentially illegal — and, indeed, this Commission will make appropriate criminal referrals at such time as it deems appropriate," the commission wrote in its report.
The commission's work is the result of a months-long struggle between Cuomo and state lawmakers, some of whom fought subpoenas from the panel by arguing it violates New York's separation of powers.
Cuomo appointed the Moreland panel — which is largely made up of sitting district attorneys and law enforcement officials — in July after the Legislature balked at accepting his plan to beef up disclosure and anti-bribery laws.
In the report, the Moreland Commission said it found evidence of laws benefiting major political donors: a tax break for major real estate developers; a carve-out in the soon-to-take-effect minimum wage law for a big-time retailer; and "various custom-tailored laws that a particularly influential lobbyist has been able to secure."
Neither the donors nor the lobbyist are identified.
In another example, a company paid large sums of money to an elected official indirectly through a separate company owned by the lawmaker. At the same time, the lawmaker directed state grants and funds back to the first company.
Like the other examples, the companies and the lawmaker were not named.
The report makes a number of recommendations for stemming public corruption in Albany, which has seen at least four lawmakers arrested, indicted or re-indicted on corruption charges this year alone.
Among the major proposals endorsed in the report is a public system of funding political campaigns for statewide elections, in which candidates for office would see small contributions backed at a 6-to-1 rate. Cuomo and Democrats in the Legislature have long backed such a system, while Republicans have remained steadfastly opposed.
Seven of the 25 Moreland members disagreed with the public financing recommendation, calling it a "significantly flawed" system that fails to take "the realities of … how political campaigns are now conducted" into account.
Other proposals would bolster the state's anti-bribery laws, decrease political donation limits and require more disclosure from independent groups looking to influence elections and issues in New York through advertisements and other means.
A spokesman for Senate Republicans, who share control of the chamber, declined comment.
In a statement, Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, said the Moreland panel's recommendations mirror those proposed by his four-member Independent Democratic Conference earlier this year.
"Now, six months after the Moreland Commission first convened, we find ourselves back at square one — negotiating a comprehensive ethics reform bill with the governor and members of the Legislature," Klein said.
A spokesman for the Assembly's Democratic majority could not be reached for comment, while Cuomo said in a statement that he would be "reviewing the commission's findings in detail and continuing to work with the Legislature to enact systemic reform."
The report's recommendations where hailed by the Fair Elections Campaign, a coalition of advocacy and good-government groups in favor of public campaign financing.
"We call on the governor and the Legislature to take action this time and pass the systemic change that will finally end this culture of corruption, restore the public trust, and prove that New York can have a government that works for all of us," said Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York. "Anything less is just more of the same dysfunction in Albany."
JCAMPBELL1@Gannett.com