So Il Duce has decided he won't sign the state budget unless there are sweeping ethics reform in the state legislature......what? Didn't he shut down the Moreland commission who's task it was to do just that?? Root out corruption??
I guess once the guys he was protecting by shutting the commission down are arrested anyway, jump back on the bandwagon.
Ethics dare by Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo is declaring war on the corruption-scarred Legislature, demanding that lawmakers enact a sweeping package of ethics reforms - and threatening to hold the state budget hostage if they don't.
"I will not sign a budget that does not have an ethics plan as outlined in my proposal," Cuomo vowed on Monday, using the biggest weapon at his disposal. "This, in all probability, means we will not have a fifth, on-time, amicable budget."
The dramatic vow, made during a speech at NYU Law School, came 11 months after Cuomo abruptly shut down his own corruption-probing Moreland Commission panel and 11 days after federal agents busted now-former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on corruption charges.
Bronx Assemblyman Carl Heastie (pictured), who could be sworn in as Silver's replacement as early as Tuesday, tried to get in front of the ethics issue Monday by recommending reforms of his own, including restrictions on outside income and possibly making lawmakers' jobs full-time.
Heastie also suggested tighter controls on per-diem payments - even though he had the third-highest per-diem expense s in the Assembly.
Cuomo proposed a five-point reform plan.
"Number One. . . officials will have to disclose to the public all the outside income they receive from whom, for what, and whether there is any connection to the state government or the office that they hold," he said.
Silver has been charged, in part, for allegedly failing to report some outside income and for doing no work for millions of dollars he received from the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg.
Cuomo also demanded that officials convicted of corruption forfeit their pensions; that per diems for travel expenses be more tightly controlled; that campaign funds be used only for campaigning under beefed-up disclosure rules; and that campaigns be publicly financed.
" We must be able to see the contributions and be able to follow the money," the governor said.
I guess once the guys he was protecting by shutting the commission down are arrested anyway, jump back on the bandwagon.
Ethics dare by Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo is declaring war on the corruption-scarred Legislature, demanding that lawmakers enact a sweeping package of ethics reforms - and threatening to hold the state budget hostage if they don't.
"I will not sign a budget that does not have an ethics plan as outlined in my proposal," Cuomo vowed on Monday, using the biggest weapon at his disposal. "This, in all probability, means we will not have a fifth, on-time, amicable budget."
The dramatic vow, made during a speech at NYU Law School, came 11 months after Cuomo abruptly shut down his own corruption-probing Moreland Commission panel and 11 days after federal agents busted now-former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on corruption charges.
Bronx Assemblyman Carl Heastie (pictured), who could be sworn in as Silver's replacement as early as Tuesday, tried to get in front of the ethics issue Monday by recommending reforms of his own, including restrictions on outside income and possibly making lawmakers' jobs full-time.
Heastie also suggested tighter controls on per-diem payments - even though he had the third-highest per-diem expense s in the Assembly.
Cuomo proposed a five-point reform plan.
"Number One. . . officials will have to disclose to the public all the outside income they receive from whom, for what, and whether there is any connection to the state government or the office that they hold," he said.
Silver has been charged, in part, for allegedly failing to report some outside income and for doing no work for millions of dollars he received from the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg.
Cuomo also demanded that officials convicted of corruption forfeit their pensions; that per diems for travel expenses be more tightly controlled; that campaign funds be used only for campaigning under beefed-up disclosure rules; and that campaigns be publicly financed.
" We must be able to see the contributions and be able to follow the money," the governor said.