The state has shelled out $10 million in taxpayer money over the last nine years to settle 88 cases where state employees — mostly women — accused colleagues of sex-based harassment or discrimination, according to a published report.
“That’s an absolutely shocking number,” state Sen. Liz Krueger told Newsday.
Added Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: “Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used to pay for the actions of bad actors.”
Two cases included checks the state cut to cover for pervy lawmakers or their staff — $545,000 went to women who accused disgraced Assembly power broker Vito Lopez of creepy behavior, and $75,000 was doled out following accusations that a Senate Majority staffer and a local Buffalo pol groped a Senate worker and subjected her to porn.
But most of the dough went to employees of state agencies, including 15 payouts to Department of Corrections sex-harass victims totaling $2.5 million.
The agency was the source of the single largest payout — $732,837 for Corrections Officer Penny T. Collins, who charged that co-workers routinely subjected her to raunchy conversations about their genitals and sex habits.
Money also went to 10 accusers from the City University of New York, three whistleblowers at Stony Brook University Hospital, and three who leveled accusations at SUNY colleges on Long Island.
The news comes as lawmakers including Kreuger are crafting legislation to end the practice of taxpayer-funded settlements while protecting accusers’ rights to payment.
Gov. Cuomo has also called for a halt to the public dough flow, as well as a rule preventing the state from requiring settlement recipients to sign non-disclosure agreements.