Sentences with phrase «state legislative ethics»
The attorney general can not start a public corruption probe unless it is referred by a head of a state executive agency, the governor or the state legislative ethics board.
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Depending on who you ask, the legislative session was a productive six months in which a range of policy measures from an increase to the state's minimum wage, paid family leave to new ethics reform and anti-heroin addiction legislation was accomplished.
After a year in which Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver, respective legislative leaders of both the State Senate and State Assembly, were convicted for defrauding the public for personal gain, politicians in Albany have once again refused to act on preventing corruption and enacting needed ethics reform and running a more open government.
The package would require public disclosure of every legislator's outside clients and income, establish an ethics commission with robust investigative powers over both the legislative and executive branches — and institute other measures to introduce badly needed transparency and accountability into our state government.
When the state legislative session ended on June 21, lawmakers left behind a lot of unfinished business, including a failure to act on ethics reform proposals made in light of the economic development scandal in the Cuomo administration.
Did passage of the state budget signal the end of Albany's legislative session for 2017, or will other matters, including ethics reform, get done before the lawmakers adjourn in June?
Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders have released the names of their appointments to the newest version of the state ethics commission Monday.
An ethics reform measure approved by the New York State Legislature at the end of the legislative session still hasn't been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
A new Siena College poll finds a majority of New Yorkers thInk legislative ethics reforms will do little or nothing to reduce state government corruption.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo concedes that ethics reform is unlikely to be a part of the New York state budget this year, despite the conviction of the two former legislative leaders on major corruption charges.
This year's state legislative session has produced no agreements on ethics reform, even though Albany is in the midst of a what some call a corruption crime wave.
Leaders of prominent good government groups gathered at the state Capitol to decry not only the inability of Cuomo and legislative leaders to achieve ethics reform in the budget process, but also the lack of transparency in the ongoing three - men - in - a-room negotiations.
In light of the corruption trials of two former legislative leaders taking place this week and New York State's D - minus grade in how it handles issues of integrity from a national comparison study, New York's leading good government groups today called upon the New York State legislature and governor to complete the job of reforming our laws governing public ethics.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says in a legislative session in which the leaders of the state Assembly and Senate are both indicted on corruption charges, the need for ethics reform in Albany is shockingly clear.
In a letter sent today to Governor Cuomo and the two legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, the civic groups urged immediate action to enact comprehensive and significant solutions on the following matters of state ethics:
Additionally, the problem of Albany corruption again being addressed not by internal state watchdogs, but instead by the U.S. Attorney who this month is prosecuting charges against the two most recent former legislative leaders, demonstrates the clear need to strengthen our state's own ethics enforcement.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released a 1,600 - word statement last week outlining his priorities for various state - level ethics reforms for the upcoming legislative session that begins in January.
Commission members, Cuomo and legislative leaders are negotiating to craft a new package of ethics laws that would include some parts of an anticorruption bill known as the Public Trust Act that the governor proposed after several corruption cases involving state lawmakers.
With a recent poll showing that nearly 90 % of New Yorkers believe that unethical behavior is a serious problem in state government a month before former legislative leaders Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos are sentenced for public corruption, the governor and legislative leaders have an obligation to New Yorkers to reach a significant agreement on ethics reform.
Today is the final day of the legislative session in Albany, and state lawmakers in both chambers have been under pressure to pass some version of ethics or anti-corruption reform measures in the wake of corruption scandals that have engulfed both chambers.
A civic coalition seeking to improve how Albany governs is asking incumbents and candidates for state office this year to pledge publicly to back strict fiscal controls on state spending, stronger ethics and financial disclosure regulations, and a nonpartisan system for drawing legislative and Congressional districts.
Cuomo put the bill on the table late in the legislative session after it had become clear that the majority of the ethics reforms he proposed in his State of the State address would not pass in the Legislature, especially the Republican - controlled Senate.
They discuss NYRA, the state budget, gambling, hydrofracking, education, legislative ethics, and redistricting.
«Our candidates including John Flynn for District Attorney, and our state legislative candidates Monica Wallace, Amber Small, Tom Loughran and Steve Meyer exemplify the progressive values of the Democratic Party and our commitment to ethics and reform in government.
State lawmakers will have to disclose more details about their outside earnings and business relationships under new ethics laws agreed to by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders.
Republicans in the New York State Senate are in talks with Gov. Andrew Cuomo about legislative ethics reforms as demands for changes mount after the recent arrest of the former Assembly speaker.
The opening day of the legislative session featured talk of ethics reform, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo chose to be elsewhere, putting off his traditional State of the State message for another week, and giving speeches in Syracuse and New York City instead.
The AG, who pledged in 2006 to be the Sheriff of State Street, is reportedly reluctant to formally announce his campaign for governor until after he clears his plate of all matters related to legislative ethics to avoid the poor optics of running against a Legislature with which he'll have to work.
A former North Carolina Supreme Court judge has filed complaints with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and a New York state ethics panel alleging that taxpayer - funded ads Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration has run in North Carolina violated the Hatch Act by interfering with the gubernatorial and legislative races...
The reminder from Bharara comes as legislative leaders and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are quietly discussing possible ethics reforms behind closed doors — reforms none of them have appeared interested in discussing publicly since Cuomo outlined his platform in his State of the State address last month.
A legislative ethics commission has sent a notice of delinquency to former New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver demanding more information about his outside income.
Touted as the key ethics measure approved at the end of the legislative session in June, the bill has been opposed by good - government organizations for failing to address the root causes of corruption in state government and placing an overdue burden on non-profit entities.
Lawmakers — as well as Cuomo — had been under pressure to approve some form of ethics and anti-corruption legislation in Albany after a parade of corruption arrests that engulfed the Capitol in recent years, including the convictions of the two former state legislative leaders last year, Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver.
JCOPE spokesman Walter McClure said it was «routine for JCOPE staff and the executive director to speak with executive and legislative officials, ethics officers and counsels and others from state agencies, and lobbyists and their clients as part of the commission's mandate to provide ethics guidance.»
Despite the string of arrests doing little to help Albany's reputation for corruption, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the new state legislative leaders acknowledge there is little they can do to stem the arrests by passing new ethics and anti-corruption laws.
Good - government watchdogs on Monday continued to criticize Cuomo and the top legislative leaders for keeping ethics reforms out of the state budget this month.
Every year, New Yorkers hear state leaders pledge to clean up Albany with promises of ethics and voting reforms, only to see the legislative session come and go with little, if no progress.
«There can be no question that a full ethics investigation into this improper exertion of state legislative influence by Senator Libous is required, either by virtue of this complaint or on the Commission's own initiative, in order to hold the state senator fully accountable to the standards of ethical conduct and public integrity state law requires of all members of the legislature.»
Horner says the governor and legislative leaders need to go «back to the drawing board» and create better state based ethics oversight.
Records on the state ethics commission website show that Whiteman Osterman & Hanna signed a contract in March 2016 to provide «legislative and regulatory counsel» while lobbying the governor's office, state agencies and the Legislature on issues of real estate development, construction, property management and other matters.
A government reform group is calling for a state ethics panel report to be made public, one day after the panel investigating charges against Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D - Brooklyn) sent a report to the legislative ethics committee.
«Regardless how today's United States Supreme Court decision on the so - called «honest services» law is interpreted in Senator Bruno's case and going forward, the Legislature and the Governor must act this legislative session to toughen ethics oversight.
Cuomo and the state's legislative leaders in March agreed to stave off talks over ethics legislation after the passage of the budget, which was approved on April 1.
An ethics reform proposal quietly circulated between Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York legislative leaders for a possible special session that could also include a pay raise is getting blasted by the State's Attorney General as possibly unconstitutional.
During the first legislative session after her election as governor, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul.
ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday named to the state's ethics commission a key player in one of the biggest legislative ethics scandals in recent memory.
The state's independent ethics commission took the first official ethics - related action in Albany since the convictions of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on Tuesday when it appointed a man with ties to both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders as its new executive director.
The Legislative Ethics Commission, under pressure from the state ethics board, has released the report.
Barbara Bartoletti, the legislative director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, said she's not optimistic that meaningful ethics reform will pass this year in Albany.
ALBANY - Reform advocates say that when he takes office as governor Saturday, Andrew Cuomo can start fixing state government without waiting for legislative support, by using executive authority to order dozens of steps to improve ethics and openness, protect consumers and help the environment.