It was a red-letter week for Albany corruption, with two former legislators getting one-way tickets to the big house.
On Monday, former Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-Queens) received concurrent 13-month sentences for swindling nearly $54,000 from taxpayers via phony travel vouchers and siphoning $38,000 more from his campaign fund.
On Thursday, ex-Assemblyman William Boyland (D-Brooklyn) got hit far harder: a 14-year stretch in the federal pen for multiple counts of extortion and bribe-taking.
Boyland’s corruption was so brazen that, after beating a similar federal rap in 2011, he began soliciting new bribes within a few days “without skipping a beat,” as the sentencing judge put it.
The veteran legislator also submitted phony vouchers for “work” travel (out-of-state vacations) and for expenses (incurred in meetings to discuss bribes).
Yet Boyland still caught a break: His 14-year term is well below the 20-year stretch recommended both by prosecutors and federal sentencing guidelines.
New York’s now nearing three dozen state legislators recently convicted or awaiting trial for corruption — with no end in sight.
Corruption-busting US Attorney Preet Bharara has said prosecutors alone can’t end political venality.
But they’ll have to do for now.