Common Cause Statement on Albany's Ethics Failure

• by Common Cause of New York

NEW YORK, NY (02/08/2010)(readMedia)-- Common Cause/NY issued the following statement following the Legislature's failure to override the Governor's veto of A9544, the Legislature's ethics bill:

Now that the Legislature has failed to override the Governor's veto of A9544, it is incumbent on the Governor and the leadership of both houses of the Legislature to stop the political grand-standing and sit down and negotiate the better, stronger ethics bill that New Yorkers expect. What is needed is a serious and open five-way discussion, not dueling revised bills or traded accusations. It's time to put aside the childish arguments over who called whom first and who did or did not write or respond to letters. That sort of schoolyard squabble is irrelevant to the voters of New York. New Yorkers want the corruption in Albany cleaned up, and it is up to our elected leaders to get it done or suffer the consequences.

"It's time to put aside the childish arguments and get down to negotiating a strong ethics reform bill," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, in response to the failure to override the Governor's veto of A9544.

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