Just when you thought nothing could make you more jaded about state politics, the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption has unveiled a report.
The stink jumps off its pages. It comes from legislators double-billing the taxpayer and their campaign funds for their travel expenses. It comes from an entity that paid a lawmaker through a company he owned at a time when this lawmaker was directing state grants back to the entity. And it includes a New York City storefront that houses several nonprofits collecting state funding to provide medical services yet having few clients.
Alas, this commission report is likely only to increase cynicism. For one thing, the panel ignores the executive branch. Indeed, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney confessed it would be a “mockery” to investigate executive corruption because, well, the governor himself convened the commission. Even though Cuomo himself promised it would be “independent.”
For another, its top recommendation — public financing of campaigns — would do little to address the problems the report raises. In fact, New York City’s public-financing system has itself been a source of scandal, as people figure out illicit ways to take advantage of these matching funds through straw donors and the like.
The rot in our state politics is real. Pity that instead of noting the connection between corruption and big and expanding government, Albany’s only answer is to throw more of our taxpayer dollars at it.