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CityAndStateNY.com
January 8, 2018
“I THINK THE TRIALS WILL PUT PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNOR TO ACT. I DO THINK THAT THE LEGISLATURE WILL BE EMBOLDENED.” — ALEX CAMARDA, REINVENT ALBANY SENIOR POLICY CONSULTANT
With the series of high-profile indictments for malfeasance during Cuomo’s tenure, Horner said the revelations may not mean things have gotten worse, but “certainly, whatever ails Albany’s ethics has not been remedied by this governor.” The reason, he believes, is that fighting corruption is less important to Cuomo than other initiatives he appears to more readily spend his political capital on, such as samesex marriage and a $15 minimum wage – among signature accomplishments that Cuomo highlighted by having dozens of guests attend his State of the State address who benefited from the laws. “I think if he had a magic wand, he’d do it,” Horner said of the governor’s desire
to pass comprehensive ethics reform. “But in the political triage of legislative dealmaking, I assume he figures the bang is not worth the buck.” However, others said the fact that the governor includes reform proposals in his agenda at all deserves praise. “I give him credit, genuine credit for always putting this on the table, having it in the mix,” said Alex Camarda, senior policy consultant at good government group Reinvent Albany. Governors in the not-so-distant past didn’t even bother to do that, Camarda said. “Where he’s come up short is with the delivery. I think it’s easy to look back at the last couple years and say he hasn’t delivered on these reform items, which he has not.”
Robert Freeman, executive director for the New York Department of State’s Committee on Open Government, said the governor’s reform proposals from last year “went nowhere, to the best of my knowledge.” A bright spot in his department, however, was a last-minute bill signed by Cuomo in December to force state agencies to pay Freedom of Information Law requestors’ attorney fees if a judge finds that the government failed to provide the information with no valid justification. “It amended the law to deal with (the) situation where a government agency engages in what I’ve come to call ‘The