NYS Pols Dodge Corruption Committee Bullet. So NOW What Happens?

This NY Times article ( yesterday, 4-17) hints at where the bodies are buried: clients of the Assembly and State Senate members' *private* law firms. The pols don't want to disclose that. ( Something about the Federalist Papers, they say. For REAL . Read the story.)

So...I'm thinking out loud now... the way that it MIGHT work is that ( just to take an issue at random) charter school operators and $$$ backers could discretely influence the votes of state reps who vote on charter school caps and limits by doing OTHER business ( or... I guess... even just *pretending* to do business but really just sending bucks to 'em.) w. the private law firms that these pols have on the side.

Well... that *could* explain the charter school vote of two weeks ago.... wherein a lot of DEMS, who were all for mayoral control of NYC public schools under Bloomberg.... suddenly changed horses and required de Blasio to cut them ( the Charter School industry) all kinds of $$$ breaks.

I'd like to know who the private clients of those pols actually are. You'd think that they'd WANT this info to become public. You know, to dispel even the *suspicion* of impropriety.

'Course, it's not just charter schools. Apparently it's the way things are done in Albany.

"How 'bout that?" ( Mel Allen?)

Anyway... I'm sorry. I wanna know where they get their money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/nyregion/with-anticorruption-panel-gone-a-move-to-monitor-new-york-lawmakers-income-is-thwarted.html?_r=0



>>>For its most provocative investigative target, an anticorruption commission appointed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo set out to scrutinize the millions of dollars earned by New York legislators who also have other jobs.

Legislative leaders were so furious that they went to court to try to stop the panel’s inquiry, quoting from the Federalist Papers and arguing that the governor had embarked upon a witch hunt that trampled upon a separate branch of government.

Mr. Cuomo pressed on: In January he proposed strict new rules requiring lawmakers to disclose their firm’s clients that have business before the state.

But his proposal did not survive negotiations with legislative leaders. And with Mr. Cuomo’s much-questioned decision last month to disband the anticorruption commission, the inquiry into lawmakers’ outside employment is coming to an abrupt halt.


The governor won new bribery and corruption laws as part of his deal with lawmakers to shut down the panel, known as the Moreland Commission. But the abandonment of the inquiry into legislators’ outside income — a subject that reformers had long been agitating about — shows how great a price Mr. Cuomo paid for the little that he got.


Senator Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, works for Ruskin Moscou Faltischek and earned $150,000 to $250,000. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
“The right questions were being asked,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a government watchdog group. “They were being relatively aggressively pursued. And then the plug was pulled overnight.”

Outside jobs held by New York legislators have been the source of several scandals, and government watchdog groups worry that the jobs can present a means for lawmakers to profit improperly from their public offices. Often, the positions are at influential law firms, and the job responsibilities are not particularly clear.

New York legislators earn a base salary of $79,500 for what is considered a part-time job. Some treat elective office as a full-time role, but others earn large salaries from outside jobs. Their earnings were made public for the first time last year under a disclosure measure won by Mr. Cuomo in 2011.

In fact, all three of the legislative leaders who negotiated the latest ethics deal with Mr. Cuomo are lawyers who have earned substantial money outside the Legislature.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, works for a personal injury law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg,>>>>>