A number of years ago, when asked about an ethics overhaul of the state executive branch, Governor Andrew Cuomo responded that such an overhaul wasn’t necessary because the ethical problems were in the state legislature.

At the time, one could say that was true. The legislature had been buffeted with scandal after scandal, which reached its apex with the conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Sadly, however, the governor’s claim regarding the executive branch’s immunity to ethical problems was blown apart with the recent arrest of nine people across the state, including two tops aides to the governor and a lobbyist who at one time worked for Cuomo and who had close ties to the executive branch.

The alleged crimes those men are facing are similar to the crimes that have ensnared several legislators over the last decade — that is, using state money and programs to indirectly enrich themselves. In the legislature, these crimes often involved legislators directing state money to nonprofits that they either directly or indirectly controlled and enriching themselves in the process by drawing large salaries from the not-for-profits for themselves, significant others, or relatives. In the recent cases involving the executive branch, it is alleged, among other things, that at least one of the governor’s close aides was accepting bribes in exchange for exerting influence on state contracts and another was rigging state bids for favored developers who also happened to be large campaign contributors to the governor.

There are no shortages of ideas on how to stop the corruption in Albany, ranging from making the state legislature full time to public financing of campaigns for all elected state offices. Unfortunately, many ideas on reform are being pushed by groups that have their own agendas and who believe that the enactment of the so-called reforms would help them enact their agendas. Sadly, the one reform that would most successfully combat corruption in Albany is the one that up until now has gotten the least amount of attention and that is, transparency.

In the legislature, legislative leaders have the ability to provide favored members large amounts of money to be used by those legislators for projects or programs in their districts. While in some cases, the money and the project is lined out in the state budget, in many cases money comes from various pots of money that even the most seasoned state budget analyst would have difficulty understanding or tracking. Further, there are no rules on how this money is distributed to legislators and few rules on how the money is spent. This, of course, is why so many legislators have been able to direct money to organizations that ultimately ended up personally enriching themselves. A common-sense reform would be to institute rules regarding how much each legislator receives for projects or programs in his/her district and how that money can be spent. In addition, all projects or programs that a legislator is advocating funding should be clearly delineated for public review — before the money is disbursed.

Transparency most likely also would have prevented the recent corruption that is being alleged involving the executive branch. These alleged crimes are largely surrounding the governor’s upstate revitalization plans — which essentially entails using huge amounts of public money for private development projects. For whatever reason, when providing this economic-development money — such as for the Buffalo Billion — to the executive branch for the upstate revitalization, the legislature attached few strings to the money. The oversight of the projects and the money that funds them has been run through two quasi-governmental entities that are subject to little oversight and no transparency. This allowed one high ranking aide to Gov. Cuomo and a lobbyist with strong ties to the governor to allegedly rig bids so favored developers won. This bid rigging appears to be so blatant that not only did the preferred developers win the projects, but they were also the only entities that could even bid on the projects because of the bidding criteria. The legislature in its upcoming session must reassert oversight on the state’s economic-development program and ensure that economic-development decisions are made in a fully transparent manner.

William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us, or (315) 598-5185.

If you love Hillary Clinton, you might not like this. If you love government, you might not like this.

It seems as clear as Saran wrap that we have been conned — over this Hillary email mess.

• Clearly, she set up a cockamamie system your nephew could hack. And maybe did. She did so to hide stuff from you. That is, to keep you from seeing things you are entitled to see — the Freedom of Information Act says you are.
• She did this to hide how the Clinton Foundation linked to the State Department. Big fish paid big money to the foundation. The foundation told Hillary’s aides. The aides and Hillary did favors for the big fish. Some of her aides had three jobs. One with the State Department, one with the foundation, and one with a company linked to the foundation. Now, why do you suppose they did that?
• Clearly, the State Department opened a few doors for Bill Clinton, who pocketed many millions of dollars for peddling his influence. The Clintons and the foundation made a lot of money through this malarkey.
• A lot of the big fish were camouflaged. It is illegal for some foreigners to give money to campaigns and foundations. Like magic, the foundation created a Canadian wing. Thousands of big fish donated to that wing. The wing forwarded money to the U.S. Without divulging the names of the big fish.
• When Congress and the FBI looked into this, people destroyed evidence for Hillary. Her own people, her consultants, and people within the State Department. People blocked access to investigators. The White House coordinated with Clinton people. To create smoke screens to hide the evidence. There was a massive effort to hide and destroy evidence.
• The fix was in. From the top of the Justice Department on down. Perhaps from the White House down. The FBI did backflips to make things easy for the Clintonistas. They handed out immunity deals like candy at Halloween. They cut deals they never cut with ordinary folks. The head of the Justice Department sat down with Bill Clinton on a plane on the tarmac just days before the FBI revealed its decision not to prosecute his wife. Absolutely unprecedented — except in banana republics.
• Clearly the system was rigged. To treat Hillary Clinton as if she is royalty. To treat her as if she is untouchable. To treat her as innocent, no matter what turns up.
• The law means nothing at such high levels. At your level it does. Do one-tenth of what Hillary has done and you face prosecution.

Ah, but this kerfuffle is over nothing, you say? Yes, it involves the stench of the foundation. But what about the classified documents in her emails?

Why do you think we classify documents? Maybe to protect lives? Like those of men and women aboard our Navy ships? (Remember the USS Cole?) Like those of our ambassador and his aides in Benghazi, Libya? Like those of our agents around the world?

We classify documents to protect America and its people. That seems to have been overlooked. People might get blown up because of email leaks? Who cares?

Getting elected is far more important.

Pundits wonder why so many of us don’t trust our government. Well, what we see is a tiny fraction of what really goes on. But here is what we do see from top government people: They destroy crucial evidence. They dodge the Freedom of Information Act. They collude to deny you what you are entitled to know. They evade on a massive scale. They lie to you. They hide pay-for-play at the highest levels of government. It involves millions of bucks of influence-peddling. The IRS lies, deceives, obstructs, and destroys evidence. So does the VA — to keep us from knowing how badly it treats some poor vets.

All of this reminds me of the Nixon mess with Watergate. As the truth dribbled out, so many Americans asked if we could trust any politician, any government official.

Sadly, millions ask the same question today.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial and other subjects from his home near Oneonta. Several upstate radio stations carry his daily commentary, Tom Morgan’s Money Talk. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com