State Senator Liz Krueger Praises Passage Of Comprehensive Lobbying Reform

4 AM in the morning and Senator Bruno was attempting to sneak pretend lobbying ‘reform’ legislation through without anybody noticing. As soon as I saw this new version of the bill, which would not have applied to lobbying the Governor and would have superceded stronger local laws, I stood up to be recognized and asked if there was a sponsor’s memo, which is a requirement for every piece of legislation. There was no memo and the Majority scrambled to put one together - eventually handwriting one. After I debated this bill and urged my colleagues to vote no on this wee hours ‘bait and switch’ reform legislation, the Majority chose to punish me by withdrawing their yes votes one-by-one from a local bill I sponsored that had passed earlier in the day,” said Senator Krueger.

Despite being pleased at the passage of this legislation, Senator Krueger expressed that there is much work left to be done. “The fact of the matter is that this legislation is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg,” said Krueger. “Public authorities are the next battleground due to the huge amount of debt incurred by their very existence and the lobbying that takes place on their behalf. In order to truly reform these ill-managed arms of state government there must be regular and detailed oversight of items that are ‘on and off’ budget by the State Comptroller, as well as lobbying limits and controls. Public authorities have essentially been used for years as a way to spend billions in public funds without any public scrutiny.”