This afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the Public Trust Act, a legislative package that would “establish a new class of public corruption crimes and expand the current definitions of public corruption offenses,” according to a press release.
In some cases, the legislation would bring state statutes in line with federal laws. That would be the case with a charge of bribing a public servant. The press release from Cuomo’s office says that under existing state law, prosecutors have to “prove that there was a corrupt agreement or understanding between the person paying the bribe and the person receiving the bribe.” Under the federal law, the prosecutor only has to show that the person doing the bribing intended to influence a public official.
The press release says that the legislation would also create the crimes of corrupting the government — a felony for essentially defrauding a state or local government — and failing to report public corruption, a misdemeanor. And it would add three new felony levels of official misconduct.
Convictions on any of the crimes would bar offenders from holding public office, working for the government, receiving public contracts, and even barring them from certain tax credits.
Though Cuomo doesn’t say so in his release, the legislation comes on the heels of two separate alleged bribery cases involving state legislators.
The governor’s press release is available here. In it, various district attorneys from across the state, including Monroe County DA Sandra Doorley, offered support for the legislation.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2013.
Another example of Cuomo rushing to pass laws based upon media attention. We don’t need fast laws, we need good laws. We don’t need a hysterical Governor acting like chicken little. Under Cuomo NY has experienced the demise of 39,453 NY state businesses last year, Cuomo is raiding $1.75 billion from the reserves of the off-budget State Insurance Fund (SIF). Coumo can not even hold on to his democratic majority which is in the middle of a corruption scandal and “show-me-the-money culture” and “pay-to-play politics.” He has disenfranchised the Northern and Western part of New York with his SAFE Act.. He can’t make a decision, either way with respect to fracking. New York has the highest taxes in the nation, is the most indebted state, with 33 percent of income dedicated to borrowing. It is ranked as the least “business-friendly” state in the country and if that were not bad enough NY has the distinction of being the least free state in the union and is called the “Nanny State” with politicians legislating what we eat and drink. Municipal governments from Nassau County to Yonkers to Syracuse are teetering. And during Mr. Cuomo’s time in office, unemployment has risen above the national average. 9% of the state’s 2000 population left for another state between 2000 and 2011 — the highest such figure in the nation,” the study by George Mason’s libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center found.
Cuomo will try to cram this legislation through before the public has a chance to read or comment on it just like his gun control law. He even said he needs to ‘strike while the iron is hot’. He has to do this and get it out of the public eye before there are any investigations into what other Democrats may be involved.