EDITORIAL: State lawmakers must return to tackle corruption

July 22--Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie want the Republican-led state Senate to reconvene and reconsider its opposition to legislation codifying abortion rights in New York state law. The two top Democrats believe that in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy and the chance that President Trump's justice pick will likely be supportive of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, now is the time to act.

Maybe so.

But that's not all Cuomo and state lawmakers should be concerned about. If any special session is held, leaders should address another key issue: Corruption.

New York state is festering with it.

The latest political derailment came with the July 12 conviction of Alain Kaloyeros, former president of the State University of New York's Polytechnic Institute and a driving force behind the Nano Utica initiative in Marcy. At the time of his arrest, two major companies were poised to invest billions of dollars for nanotechnology research and manufacture. One, General Electric, has since partnered with Danfoss Silicon Power LLC at SUNY Polytechnic in Marcy to package silicon-carbide wafers at Quad-C that are manufactured at SUNY Polytechnic in Albany.

But the other, Austrian-based AMS, turned tail several months after Kaloyeros' arrest in 2016. And with it went plans for a $2 billion chip fabrication plant and as many as 4,000 new jobs by 2025. The Marcy chip fab site sits vacant.

Kaloyeros was among four co-defendants convicted by a federal jury in New York on charges related to Gov. Cuomo's "Buffalo Billion" economic redevelopment program. Prosecutors said he was part of a conspiracy to secretly enable developers who were big contributors to Cuomo's campaigns to win the lucrative contracts. Also convicted was Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli, whose company, LPCiminelli, won a development job in Buffalo worth half a billion dollars, and developers Steven Aiello, 60, and Joe Gerardi, 58, who were awarded a $100 million job in Syracuse. The men are executives at Syracuse-based COR Development.

Prosecutors said Ciminelli and others in his company contributed nearly $100,000 to Cuomo's campaign while COR executives and their relatives contributed $125,000 to Cuomo's 2014 re-election campaign.

Cuomo was not charged in the case or accused of any wrongdoing. Still, being surrounded by all this stink can't be a good thing.

Kaloyeros wasn't the only one in the Cuomo camp to get caught scheming. In March, Joseph Percoco, a top former aide to the governor, was convicted of corruption charges that included taking $300,000 in bribes from companies with state business.

If indeed Cuomo had no clue what was going on here, one might wonder why. He was close to both men and put his faith in them, calling Kaloyeros his "economic guru" and Percoco, a "brother" and his "father's third son." He should at the very least be leading the charge for ethics reform.

Most egregious is that those recently convicted are only the tip of the corrupt Albany viceberg. Since 2000, more than 30 state lawmakers -- from both sides of the political aisle -- have left office because of criminal charges or allegations of ethical misconduct against them. That includes former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, found guilty May 11 for the second time on seven corruption charges that included using his position as one of the state's most powerful politicians to obtain close to $4 million in bribes and kickbacks.

And just this past week, another one-time Albany power broker, former Senate leader Dean Skelos, and his son Adam were convicted of extortion, wire fraud and bribery charges of pressuring businesses to give the son no-show jobs or else risk losing the powerful Republican's political support. Like with Silver, it was the second trial for them.

Clearly Albany has jumped the track. Lawmakers must return and straighten out this mess before it's too late -- if it isn't already.

A few solutions

Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), a good-government group, recently offered a few suggestions for attacking government corruption in Albany. Among them:

--Enhance the authority of the independently-elected state Comptroller to monitor spending. Early in the Cuomo term, the Comptroller's powers were cut back, which may have sent a powerful signal that executive branch employees would be able to do so as they please. The first step to reduce the risk of corruption -- restore and enhance the Comptroller's oversight powers.

--Dramatically improve public openness of state contracting. New York should approve a "database of deals" that ensures better public oversight of the value of government spending. In addition, all government-created corporations must be subject to the same openness requirements of state government.

--End "pay to play" campaign practices. Cuomo promised in 2010 that he would dramatically restrict the ability of those seeking government contracts to shower elected officials with campaign contributions. He has done little to achieve that goal. Now is the time to act.

These steps, and others -- like closing the Limited Liability Company campaign finance loophole, restricting the outside income of public officials and establishing an independent ethics watchdog agency -- are critical to reducing corruption risk and restoring the public's trust in its state government.

No more talk. Ethics reform must be a priority.

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