Passing the buck on ethics

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The state budget has just passed, and it contains several laudable components. New York, like the rest of the country, is overdue on a substantial minimum wage increase, and the gradual hike to $15 per hour should provide some relief to plenty of struggling people.

Paid family leave marks additional progress. The program allows up to 12 weeks off to spend time with newborns or take care of a sick family member, among other scenarios, without risking onerous financial losses. Hopefully, the rest of the U.S. will follow suit.

Ethics remains one area where the state is not the least bit exemplary. First of all, there is the problem with the way the budget itself was passed.

In keeping with shameful tradition, negotiations were limited to the governor and leaders of the legislature. In recent weeks, Andrew Cuomo saw fit to make headlines threatening drastic measures that would hurt New York City, but for all we know, they were bluffs intended to draw concessions out of his negotiating partners in talks we will never know about.

The process confined the northwest Bronx’s state legislators, like almost every other lawmaker in the state, to the sidelines. They and their staffs had precious little time to pore over hundreds of pages of budget legislation before casting their votes. It is outrageous that members of the public often have to wait for lawmakers to deign to give press releases about the deliberately opaque budget’s contents before we learn about discretionary and other spending. But the reality is that the budget probably contains as many surprises for the people who voted on it as for members of the public.

Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and state Sen. Gustavo Rivera should work to end the system of legislators’ ceding their constitutional power over the state’s coffers to “three men in a room” and lead demands for rank-and-file legislators to have a say in an open budget process every year. State Sen. Jeff Klein, who has played a shady role in past budget negotiations, cannot be counted on to introduce greater transparency to Albany, but it would be welcome if he tried to set a new tone.

In addition to restoring the deliberative function of the legislature, Assembly members and senators should stop ignoring the greatest corruption scandal in years — the bribery cases of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Sen. Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Their convictions disgusted voters throughout the state and renewed the urgency of passing an ethics overhaul with measures like a ban on outside income for lawmakers and public financing of campaigns.

While Mr. Cuomo, state Sen. Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie are patting themselves on the back for the budget, they would do well to consider that nearly half of all New Yorkers think every elected official should be voted out of office, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. If state lawmakers have any respect for their constituents, they will take steps to earn their trust before the session is over this summer.

budget, Andrew Cuomo, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Gustavo Rivera, Jeff Klein, corruption, ethics

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