After Gov. Paterson announced his plan to implement far-reaching ethics reforms in Albany, the state Senate released its own pared down ethics reform proposal yesterday. The lawmakers' plan would create a new office for investigating ethics violations in legislature and would require elected officials to disclose how much money they earn from outside jobs, according to NY1. But the proposal wouldn't institute statewide campaign finance reform or initiate term limits, like Paterson had suggested.
Though Paterson's ethics reform proposal was gutsier, even good government groups acknowledged that it would be "dead on arrival" in Albany, according to the Gotham Gazette. Those groups seem split on the new package — which would force lawmakers who act as consultants to release the names of their clients, though it wouldn't require the same for those who work for law firms, like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson.
Paterson himself appears to be of two minds on the Senate's plan, releasing contradicting statements on the group's proposal, according to the Daily News. First, the Governor said that although he prefers his own reform package, he was "very pleased that they responded within one week, and I think that's the basis for a very good negotiation." Then a Paterson spokesman said "[t]he Governor is stunned that legislative leaders would be so disrespectful to the public that only one week after he proposed a sweeping and real overhaul of the ethics system in Albany, they would try to pass this off as anything more than election year window dressing," the Village Voice reports.
