Editorial

Tone deaf on corruption

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As New Yorkers grapple with the ramifications of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Monday conviction on corruption charges in a case widely seen as a trial of the way of doing business in the city and state, some Bronx politicians are voicing a dubious solution to corruption in Albany: give them a pay raise.

To some, Mr. Silver’s conviction on crimes including extortion, fraud and money laundering might seem like an impetus for aggressively reforming campaign finance law, rules on lawmakers’ outside income and other areas. It also seems well for politicians who unquestioningly followed Mr. Silver for more than two decades to do some soul searching about their role in letting the former speaker turn Albany into an undemocratic, corrupt disgrace.

No such introspection for northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. The day after news of the conviction broke, he issued a statement saying the main result of the verdict should be making state legislative office a full-time job. He couched the call in terms of cutting off all outside income for state legislators. Mr. Dinowitz would do well to focus on that goal before pursuing a raise for him and his colleagues. While his Tuesday statement did not explicitly call for a raise, he has previously said state lawmakers’ salaries should go up from  $79,500 to $112,890 per year.

There are a few well-known arguments in favor of enacting such a policy, though an extra $30,000 or so per year would hardly placate the greed of Mr. Silver’s ilk. But now is not the time to revive this issue. Instead, Mr. Dinowitz and his allies like Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein should do everything in their power to enact the kind of reforms they have seen languish for years — closing the so-called LLC loophole that allows unlimited campaign contributions, a measure that both claim to support, creating a public system of financing for state political campaigns and other measures.

Sheldon Silver, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Robert Johnson, corruption
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