Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney (R,C-New Hartford) criticized today’s Assembly Majority rules reform proposal . After indictments last year, there has been a significant call from the public and elected officials to address corruption in Albany. Tenney says the resolution proposed today will do little to stop future incidents of corruption.
“Nearly eleven months after the indictment of two of the most powerful leaders in the entire state, the Assembly Majority passed a mediocre resolution today that fails to address the rampant corruption in our legislative system,” said Tenney. “As certain as the sun rises we can expect Assembly Democrats to assure us these reforms will eliminate corruption and we can all sleep peacefully at night. Sadly this is far from the truth; without language addressing pension forfeiture and legislative term limits we can only expect this level of corruption to continue.
“Lawmakers who abuse their power should not receive any breaks; their pensions should be stripped and the money should go back to taxpayers. The Legislature needs to prove to the people of New York that we are serious about ethics reform and combating corruption. Passing strict pension reform laws and implementing term limits for all elected officials should be our top priority as session continues,” Tenney said.
Tenney is calling for passage of the Public Pension Forfeiture Act, a measure that, if enacted, would strip pensions from corrupt public officials convicted of felonies related to their offices. Taxpayers are paying millions for pensions of felons, some of whom were receiving pension checks while in prison.
Tenney is also pushing for passage of the Public Officers Accountability Act. This measure would create tougher penalties for breaking the public’s trust. It also would set term limits, ban corrupt politicians from running for future public office and reform campaign finance laws.
In addition to the ethics offered today, Tenney has proposed an additional package of reforms to be implemented, which would:
- Enact term limits of six (6) years for the Speaker and committee chairs;
- Allocate staff funding equally to each member of the Assembly, regardless of seniority. This will eliminate the Speaker’s power to use staff allocations to punish members who don’t fall in line with the Speaker;
- Empower the committee process by allowing standing committees to decide if bills should come to the floor for a vote, without interference from the Speaker;
- Require committees to have autonomy to vet issues and to seek input from the public before a bill comes to the floor of the whole Legislator for a vote;
- Prevent the Speaker from removing committee chairs over mere policy disagreements;
- Require receipts for all state reimbursed expenses submitted by members of the Legislator before reimbursement;
- Cut legislative pay in half and reduce the legislative session by three months, closing session on April 1 instead of dragging it out until the end of June;
- Enact term limits for legislators to five (5) terms. This will begin the process of eliminating entrenched Albany interests and having true citizen legislators serve the people;
- Replace defined benefit plans for legislators with defined contribution plans similar to the private sector;
- Strip legislators who have been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude or corruption from receiving their taxpayer funded pensions; and
- Require full disclosure of slush fund spending that is controlled by legislative leaders as a first step toward eliminating corrupt pay to play schemes.