ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie recently met with 20 of his members to discuss the idea of possibly barring or restricting outside income for legislators.
“He’s said all along we’re not closed off to anything,” said Heastie spokesman Michael Whyland in confirming the meeting.
The confab came just days after the federal corruption convictions of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
One Assembly member who attended said Heastie did not tip his hand.
“There were two high-profile convictions and the voters are demanding additional reforms,” the lawmaker said. “Carl was trying to get information on what people’s thoughts were.”
Among the ideas discussed were raising the $79,500 base pay for lawmakers while barring all outside income or following the Congressional model of limiting how much can be made.
No consensus was reached.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx), the traditional Senate Democratic conference, and government reformers are calling for a ban on outside income.
“We will continue to see this crime wave of corruption until we address the contributing factors and that’s the temptations that come from having outside income,” said Richard Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union.
Gov. Cuomo, who plans to unveil an ethics reform package next week, has said he is open to the idea of banning outside income, but doesn’t think it will pass the Legislature.
Senate GOP Majority Leader John Flanagan, who stepped down from his law firm before ascending to leader, has said his conference opposes the idea of banning outside income.
“We are ostensibly supposed to have, or legally supposed to have, a citizen Legislature or a part-time Legislature,” Flanagan recently said. “I want people with a depth of background. I think it’s useful to have people from varying walks of life.”
