Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed with part of my leading question today about ethics reform, in which I dissed the last purported reform enacted here four years ago. "I would agree with that analysis on woefully falling short" in 2007, Cuomo said during a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in the Red Room. But he dodged when I pressed him about the key similarity in this year's process, that the bill is being negotiated in secret between the governor and legislative leaders. "When and if" there's a deal, Cuomo said, "I'll share it with the people of this state."
While it's unlikely that this year's bill will be as bad as the 2007 one (which according to former NYPIRG Legislative Director Blair Horner had the primary purpose of getting rid of Albany's only effective ethics enforcer, then Lobbying Commission Executive Director David Grandeau), we are apparently not going to know what's in it until we are presented with the done deal.
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