Op-Ed: Justice Served in Silver Corruption Case

Statement from Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney

“Today’s sentencing of corrupt former Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver is a great step forward in punishing the corruption of officials in state government. I was the first elected official to call for Silver’s resignation in 2012 for covering up sexual harassment claims in the Assembly by using a secret slush fund created with taxpayer money.  It is important for the people of New York to know that elected officials will be held accountable for their actions. New Yorkers deserve representatives who honestly and fairly advocate for their constituents– not participate in self-serving pay-to-play schemes that hurt the people they represent. Even with the sentencing of Silver, another corruption scandal is unfolding involving Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio. This is just more evidence of the need for serious reforms to our Assembly rules to put an end the abuse of power by career politicians once and for all.  I have introduced the following reforms to restore integrity in our state government:

1. Enact term limits for the Speaker and committee chairs of six (6) years.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Prevent the Speaker from removing committee chairs over mere policy disagreements.
6. Require receipts for all state reimbursed expenses submitted by members of the Legislator before reimbursement.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Replace defined benefit plans for legislators with defined contribution plans similar to the private sector.
10. Strip legislators from receiving their state taxpayer funded pensions who have been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude or corruption.
11. Require full disclosure of slush fund spending that is controlled by legislative leaders as a first step toward eliminating corrupt pay to play schemes.”