A local newspaper printed my letter to the editor on Nov. 7, 2007. One part stated: “The Three Stooges – Spitzer, Bruno and Silver – were made from the same mold in taking care of state business. They don’t. And Mutt and Jeff, a.k.a. Bruno and Silver, are truly silly men. I understand one of them not only receives a paycheck from the taxpayer, but also from a law firm he is associated with. However, one has to wonder if any of the bills he passes [or doesn’t pass] aids his law firm.”
Now five years later, Mr. Eric Dinallo [N.Y. state insurance superintendent from 2007 to 2009] took issue with this outside income for legislators in his New York Times article entitled “New York’s Moonlighting Lawmakers.”
He stated: “…the legislators are part-timers. That has been the case since colonial times, when lawmakers traveled to the state capital just twice a year and had limited legislative responsibilities, for which they received part-time pay…Because these “citizen lawmakers” work only a few days a week, they also are permitted to have lucrative day jobs…And that’s a situation that, by its nature, invites potential conflicts of interest…. [ In the U.S. Congress]… “members are prohibited from earning outside income above 15 percent of their yearly Congressional salaries and…are not permitted to be affiliated with professional services firms [such as law or consulting practices].”
Mr. Silver is a lawyer and one has to guess as to how much he earns from his law firm as a percentage of his government salary. As many are asking for Mitt Romney’s tax forms, would it now be fair for those same people to ask for Silver’s tax forms?
In the New York Times: “Several watchdog groups had asked the commission to look into Mr. Silver’s authorization of a $ 103,000 state payment to two of the women…” This was in reference to: “The ethics commission met on Tuesday to discuss the sexual harassment scandal, which centers on claims brought by four women against Mr. Lopez…”
Was the payment legal and ethical? What do you think? The ethics committee will soon decide.
Thus, should our legislators be paid as full time employees and their outside income be limited to a percentage of their government salary as exist in Congress today?
Should lawyer legislators in Albany be excluded from receiving outside income from their law firms as is Congress?
John Messina
Great Neck
