The law, passed in 2011 as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's
first ethics reform bill, requires lobbyists or their clients who pay a state employee more than $ 1,000 in a year to submit a form detailing the exact amount every six months.
Not exact matches
First in his original budget, and then in the 30 - day amendments released last Friday, Cuomo placed controversial
ethics and education
reforms in appropriations
bills, over which the Legislature is afforded very little power under the state Constitution.
The matter of prioritization for the
bill - signing also underscores questions about the
bill being necessary in the
first place, but also issue that many took with Cuomo's abandonment of other, more pressing government
ethics and campaign finance
reform proposals, many of which he had previously claimed to champion.
It was also advertised as a way to end the horse - trading that's been a part of pay raises for decades — in 1987, Mario Cuomo linked a salary increase to
ethics reforms, and the 1998 pay hike was accompanied by the creation of the state's
first charter schools, a
bill pushed by dairy farmers, and an agreement to give the comptroller authority to withhold legislators» paychecks in years when budgets are late.
Elected during a season of scandals in 2010, Cuomo introduced his
first ethics -
reform bill not long after taking office.
Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. (D - Bronx), the only member of the Senate to vote against the
ethics reform bill, vowed to release his information - if the leadership does so
first.
The meeting, he said, represented the
first opportunity that any
ethics reform bill was voted on this year.
Cuomo called the
ethics reform bill he signed this week, which has been criticized by good government groups, a «good
first step,» acknowledging more must be done to address Albany's corruption problem.
His 2011
ethics reform bill was the
first to require officials to publicly identify a range of money they earned on the side, and information about the clients they represent has gradually expanded.