Originally Published: December 3, 2013
Citizens Union welcomes broad scope of recommendations
Statement by Executive Director Dick Dadey
Citizens Union welcomes the detailed findings and extensive recommendations made today by the Moreland Commission in its draft report examining how our ethics and election laws need to be strengthened to renew public trust in Albany.
That the Moreland Commission’s report recommends comprehensive campaign finance reform that is rooted in public funding and also calls for other measures to cure the culture of corruption in Albany demonstrates that it understands how pervasive and interconnected the problems of wrongdoing are within our state government. As much as we need campaign finance reform, we also need stronger, independent enforcement of our election laws, greater public disclosure of elected officials’ outside income, an end to discretionary funding arrangements that hide how taxpayer money is spent, and new laws to empower law enforcement officials charged with fighting corruption.
The Commission’s recommendations mark another chapter in the decades-long effort to bring reform to Albany. Governor Cuomo and the legislature must ultimately act during the 2014 legislative session to enact all aspects of this report and arguably even more. The Commission has provided a pathway to reform, but only our elected officials can deliver it.
Citizens Union testified twice before the Commission on budget transparency and ethics, met with commissioners and staff, and issued a briefing book related to the issues under its jurisdiction. We testified to the Commission regarding a groundbreaking report ” Spending in the Shadows: Discretionary Funding in the NYS Budget” revealing over $3 billion in loosely defined and poorly disclosed discretionary funds in the state’s budget authorized this year through re-appropriated “lump sum” pots of funds that allow spending decisions to be made by our elected officials after budget bills are passed. At the initial hearing of the Commission, Citizens Union made suggestions for improving the Public Trust Act, which contains a series of measures that would make it easier for district attorneys to prosecute wrongdoing by elected officials and public servants, as well as increase penalties for those convicted of corruption. Citizens Union’s recommendations are rooted in its own Ten-Point Plan for cleaning up Albany it released in June.