ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo wants to close the Lopez loophole.
He suggested subjecting more state legislative records — like the “secret,” taxpayer-funded $103,080 payment to settle sex-harassment charges against Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) — to the same public scrutiny as executive agency records.
It’s part of his price for a potential legislative pay raise, along with hiking the minimum wage, decriminalizing minor pot possessions during stop-and-frisk procedures and partial taxpayer financing of state elections.
“There’s a reform agenda I’m saying that we could take up” in a post-election special session that could raise lawmakers’ base salary for the first time since 1999, Cuomo said on Albany’s Talk 1300 radio yesterday.
Cuomo noted executive branch confidentiality agreements are readily available under the state’s Freedom of Information Law — unlike what he called the “secret deal” on the Lopez settlement.
The state’s ethics watchdog agency is investigating the settlement, which was approved by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) after consultation with aides to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.