NEWS

Squabble threatens pension-stripping plan

Jon Campbell
@JonCampbellGAN
Ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, receives a pension of $79,223 a year despite being convicted in 2015 of fraud and extortion.

ALBANY - Few concepts in Albany have more widespread support: Stripping public officials of their retirement benefits if they’re convicted of a crime related to their work.

Taxpayers are on the hook for more than $682,000 a year in payments to 16 former state lawmakers who have been convicted of a felony and have since filed for their retirement, according to a Gannett Albany Bureau review of data from the state Comptroller’s Office.

The state’s constitution protects public pension benefits for state and local-government employees or officials — even if they’re guilty of corruption.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called it “perverse.” Both the state Senate and Assembly have approved measures that would allow for pension stripping, albeit in different forms. And 84 percent of New York voters say it should happen, according to a Siena College poll last week.

So why, then, has it been so difficult to make it happen?

The answer lies within a difference of opinion between Senate and Assembly leaders about how the constitutional change should be crafted, which has been exacerbated by pressure from public-employee unions concerned about the potential ramifications.

As that disagreement lingers, time is running short.

[ DATABASE: Troubled NY lawmakers ]

Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, has filed for retirement, but his pension data is not yet publicly available. He was convicted in 2015 of fraud and extortion.

The Legislature has to start the constitutional-amendment process this year in order for it to take effect at the start of 2018. If it doesn’t, the earliest it could happen is 2020.

“I more than understand that there’s nothing guaranteed in Albany, but I do think a great many of my colleagues understand that 2016 is the year that this needs to get done,” said Assemblyman David Buchwald, D-White Plains, Westchester County, who sponsors a pair of pension-forfeiture bills.

Protected payments

The list of convicted lawmakers receiving a pension includes former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who began collecting his $79,223-a-year retirement payments shortly after he was convicted of a corruption plot last year.

Former Senate Deputy Majority Leader Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, collects a $57,744-a-year pension. He was convicted last year of lying to the FBI.

Ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, has filed for his retirement, but his pension calculations were not yet available from the state Comptroller’s Office. Skelos, convicted of wire fraud and extortion last year, could collect as much as $95,000 a year, according to some estimates.

Those pension checks are protected by Article V, Section 7 of the state constitution, which says retirement benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired” for members of New York’s pension system.

In 2011, Cuomo and lawmakers approved a law that allows a judge to revoke a pension if a state or local official is convicted of a felony related to their job. But because of the constitutional protections, it only applies to those who entered the pension system after the law took effect.

A constitutional amendment would change that, but it’s a lengthy process: The amendment has to be approved by consecutively elected sessions of the Legislature — lawmakers are up for election every two years, including this year — before it’s put to a public referendum. If it’s approved, it takes effect the next year.

In some cases, prosecutors have gotten creative.

Former Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada, for example, is forced to give up a $7,346-a-year pension to the federal courts to cover part of his restitution after he was convicted of pilfering a health care clinic in 2012.

In Monroe County, Nelson Rivera, the county’s former information technology director, agreed to forfeit about $45,000 in contributions to the state’s retirement system as part of a plea deal Wednesday.

Andreatta: Who should lose a public pension?

Deal falls apart

Late last March, Cuomo and the leaders of the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led Assembly appeared to strike a deal on pension stripping as part of a last-minute agreement on the state’s $142 billion budget.

But the apparent agreement quickly fell apart.

While the Senate gave first approval to an amendment March 31, the Assembly wrapped up its budget votes in the early hours of April 1 without voting on it.

When the Assembly did approve a pension-stripping amendment in June, it varied greatly from the Senate version — laying out in much greater detail what types of workers would be affected in what situations.

“We had a three-way agreement, and the Senate passed what was agreed-upon,” Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-Suffolk County, said last month. “The Assembly chose not to. They need to do better.”

On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, said the chamber’s Democrats are looking for “clarity” in the amendment.

The Assembly’s majority wants the specific changes to be laid out in the constitution itself — which would make it harder to change in the future.

The version passed by the Senate, Heastie noted, allows for specifics to be plugged in by law, an easier process than altering the constitution.

“We just want more clarity,” Heastie told reporters. “If you’re going strip someone’s pension, we just want it to be spelled out: This is who and this is why your pension should be taken.”

Negotiations between the two houses are ongoing, according to Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Thomas Croci, a Long Island Republican. In an interview Tuesday with Time Warner Cable News’ “Capital Tonight,” Croci said he’s working with Buchwald to come up with a bill that’s agreeable to both the Senate and the Assembly.

Sen. George Latimer, D-Rye, Westchester County, said there isn’t a “philosophical, liberal versus conservative” divide on the issue.

“It’s not like we’re trying to negotiate the death penalty,” Latimer said. “To me, this is a practical issue we can get behind us this year. And if we don’t get it behind us, it’s not a statement of dysfunction, it’s a statement of willful lack of desire to solve the problem.”

Troubled NY lawmakers

Union pressure

State lobbying records show some of Albany’s most powerful interests have been at work: public-employee unions.

Among the unions that have lobbied on various pension-stripping proposals are the New York State United Teachers union and three of its affiliates, as well as the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents mostly blue-collar state and local workers.

Carl Korn, a spokesman for NYSUT, said the pension-forfeiture debate should be focused on “elected officials who violate the public trust.”

Teachers and public employees shouldn’t be in danger of losing their public pension for “a minor offense,” he said. Cuomo’s proposal, which is similar to the amendment passed by the Senate last year, applies to public officials who are “convicted of a crime related to public office” — not just a felony.

“We applaud Speaker Heastie for recognizing the importance of a carefully crafted bill that protects families from being hurt by the misdeeds of one person,” Korn said.

Stephen Madarasz, a spokesman for CSEA, said the union wants to make sure any changes don’t lead to more-widespread pension forfeiture rules that go far beyond political corruption.

“We fully understand that the public is concerned about this issue,” Madarasz said. “We just want to be sure that whatever is done addresses what those concerns are and doesn’t simply do a blanket on having forfeiture no matter what the circumstance.”

What next

Cuomo included his proposal as part of a series of ethics reforms in his $145 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.

The governor doesn’t have a formal role in the amendment process — he doesn’t have to sign it for it to take effect — but he does hold some leverage. He could refuse to agree on a budget deal unless it’s included.

“We must take state pensions from those convicted of a crime related to their government service,” Cuomo said during his State of the State address last month. “Anything else shows disrespect for the rule of law and for the taxpayer.”

Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford, said whether ethics reforms pass will depend on how intense the public pressure becomes.

“It’s going to depend on the governor,” said Nojay. “He has the bully pulpit. If he is serious about ethics reform as a way of preserving or establishing a legacy, then he knows how to bring that pressure.”

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

Here’s a list of former state lawmakers collecting a pension after they were convicted of a felony:

Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, Assembly speaker. $79,223 a year. Convicted in 2015 of fraud and extortion.

Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, Senate deputy majority leader. $57,744 a year. Convicted in 2015 of lying to the FBI.

Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, Senate majority leader. Filed for retirement, but pension data not yet publicly available. Convicted in 2015 of fraud and extortion.

Alan Hevesi, D-Queens, state comptroller and assemblyman. $106,301 a year. Pleaded guilty to official misconduct in 2010.

Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, Senate majority leader. $24,246 a year. Convicted in 2015 of conspiracy, extortion and fraud.

Gloria Davis, D-Bronx, assemblywoman. $63,162 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2003 to bribery-related charges.

Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, senator. $7,346 a year, but payment is intercepted for restitution. Convicted of embezzlement-related charges in 2012.

Efrain Gonzalez Jr., D-Bronx, senator. $37,193 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2006 to mail fraud.

Diane Gordon, D-Bronx, assemblywoman. $10,653 a year. Convicted in 2008 of bribery and official misconduct.

Shirley Huntley, D-Queens, senator. $7,433 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2013 to embezzlement scheme.

Gerald Johnson, R-Nunda, Livingston County, assemblyman. $40,671 a year. Pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in 2000.

Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, senator. $58,011 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2011 to bribery-related charges.

Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, Putnam County, senator. $61,739 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2010 to bribery and tax-evasion charges.

Brian McLaughlin, D-Queens, assemblyman. $14,365 a year. Convicted of racketeering and embezzlement in 2008.

Clarence Norman, D-Brooklyn, assemblyman. $43,934 a year. Convicted in three separate corruption trials between 2005 and 2007.

Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers, senator. $70,155 a year. Pleaded guilty in 2012 to underreporting his income between 2000 and 2008.

Pension data source: State Comptroller’s Office.