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Coalition Presses For Strengthened Lobby Law
by Jay Jochnowitz - Albany Times Union
Armed with Swiss cheese and sharp criticism, a coalition of advocacy groups Monday began reapplying pressure to state legislators to come up with stronger lobbying reform.
Delivering slices of Swiss cheese to assemblymen to make their point that the law passed in December was riddled with loopholes, the organizations called on the Assembly to either write a stricter law or ask the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying to interpret the rules more narrowly.
Citing last year's scandal involving Philip Morris lobbyist Sharon Portnoy, who admitted falsifying records while spending far more than the legal limit on outings with legislators, Charles Juntikka of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York said, ``People are worried that big money has corrupted politics in Albany, and this is proof of it.''
Juntikka, with the associations' government ethics committee, called December's bill, which kept the $75 gift limit in place but increased penalties for violations, ``a sham reform that's being foisted by the leadership on the public . . . so that our political leaders can say they did something. They didn't.''
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver bristled at the criticism, stating that critics ignored the broader issue of campaign finance reform, in which more money is at stake.
``All of these so-called good government groups are standing there and saying that people in the Legislature can be bought for $75 but they can't be bought for $25,'' Silver said, referring to the state Senate's voluntary acceptance of a $25 gift limit.
The Assembly's bill has come under criticism following a heavily attended session Feb. 17 between the lobbying commission and lobbyists to discuss how the new law would be applied. Among the commission's interpretations is that the $75 limit is for each ``occasion,'' or every time a receipt is paid. Presumably, a lobbyist could in a single day treat a legislator to hundreds of dollars in gifts, meals, drinks, travel and entertainment and still not break the law, as long as each item was under $75.
The commission's executive director, David Grandeau, has said that if legislators wanted the law to be more stringent, it should have written it differently. But critics call the interpretation outrageous.
``Can any reasonable person think that was the intent of the law and this does anything to protect integrity?'' said Erik Joerss, Common Cause's lobbying director.
The groups distributing the cheese slices -- valued at 6 cents each -- want assemblymen to voluntarily accept the Senate's $25 limit. The organizations, which also included the League of Women Voters and the New York Public Interest Research Group, also want the commission to interpret the gift limit as being an annual constraint, the same interpretation the state ethics panel put on a $75 limit in the Public Officers Law, which applies to state employees.
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Students Put Pressure on Legislators by Winnie Hu
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Sen. Joe Bruno
Sen. Bruno’s Flawed Gift Ban Bill Loopholes |
