Office of The Governor
Gov. Cuomo’s panel probing public corruption is getting tough with lawmakers. Good going.
Subpoena-slapping is about to befall the top bosses and moneymakers of the state Legislature. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.
Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission has announced that it will be serving formal demands for personal financial information on lawmakers with substantial outside income — a group that surely should include Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Senate co-leaders, Republican Dean Skelos and Democrat Jeff Klein.
The commission is probing the Legislature’s soft underbelly in asking for data that could show connections between who pays legislators how much and their official actions. No wonder Silver, Skelos, Klein & Co. refused a pretty-please request for the material through lawyers who falsely purported to speak on behalf of the entire Assembly and Senate.
Now look for those same lawyers to whinny and neigh that the commission has no jurisdiction because the Legislature is a law unto itself.
The business combine of Silver, Skelos & Klein is sure to take that argument into court.
No judge of steady bearing would entertain it. Then, again, this is New York, and you never know when the courts will lapse into naked foolishness.
Silver pulls down at least $ 350,000 annually from a personal injury firm. Skelos makes at least $ 150,000 from a Long Island law firm that has a lobbying arm. And Klein earns at least $ 50,000 from his law firm in the Bronx. The public is entitled to know who is paying these guys what.
The subpoenas must stand.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=15773
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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