HOYLMAN CALLS FOR MAJOR ETHICS REFORMS TO ADDRESS "ALBANY'S CAULDRON OF CORRUPTION" IN WAKE OF TODAY'SCONVICTION OF REPUBLICAN LEADER DEAN SKELOS

“The trials of Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver have laid bare Albany's cauldron of corruption. This is Albany's Watergate moment and, just like Congress did in the 1970s, we must seize this opportunity to restore the public trust.

“In response to today's conviction of former Senate Leader Skelos, it is incumbent on us as state lawmakers to enact bold and comprehensive ethics reforms. We can start by passing the package of bills sponsored by my Democratic colleagues and me that includes restricting legislators’ outside income, preventing campaign war chests from being used as legal defense slush-funds, and prohibiting public officials from engaging in secretive self-dealing to benefit themselves and family members.

"Reforms like these would help prevent the brazen corruption that has been exposed by federal prosecutors in the Skelos and Silver trials and infected our state capital like a cancer.”

Senator Hoylman is the prime sponsor of the following bills intended to reform the way business is done in Albany:

• S.34 would restrict lawmakers' outside income to 15% of their legislative salary and ban moonlighting for certain types of professions involving a fiduciary duty, like attorneys, physicians, or investment brokers.
• S.338 would ban campaign funds from being used for attorneys fees for defending public officials and their family members in criminal or civil proceedings. 
• S.500-A would explicitly outlaw the practice of kickbacks and self-dealing that have played such a central role in the Silver and Skelos cases by making it a felony for public officials to knowingly and secretly steer public funds or business to institutions or organizations in order to benefit themselves, their family members, or a person with whom the public official has a financial relationship.