Opinion

An excess of candor?

It’s not every day you hear a union boss admit he may have engaged in criminal activity, but Danny Donohue — who runs one of Albany’s biggest lawmaker ATMs — effectively did just that Monday.

Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, announced that he’s cutting off all political donations to the Legislature because it passed Gov. Cuomo’s Tier VI pension reform last week.

That is, he basically admitted the quid pro quo at the heart of Albany’s transactional politics: The unions buy lawmakers, who then vote as they’ve been instructed.

Since the pols in Donohue’s pocket disappointed him, he’s halting the flow of union campaign cash.

Such arrangements constitute crimes. And while Donohue’s specific remarks probably fall short of an indictable offense for lack of specifics, it certainly violates the spirit of ethics laws in the state.

Indeed, Cuomo recognized just that: “If you are linking political contributions to a specific vote, you may get a call from the attorney general, a district attorney” or the state ethics commission, he warned yesterday.

“As you know, there should be no campaign contributions for specific votes,” said the chief executive.

Now, we don’t doubt that Donohue is playing a bit to his peanut gallery.

He’s running for union office at the national level, and he has to establish whatever it is that passes for street cred among unionized civil “servants.”

Nevertheless, CSEA support is a big deal: The 265,000-member union has forked over more than $600,000 to political campaigns since 2009.

And, for the most part, Democrats and Republicans alike have done what Donohue and other union bosses have demanded in return.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Donohue really meant it when he promised to turn off the spigot?

Ironically, Donohue’s thunder came on the very same day some self-styled good-government groups released a report describing New York state’s government as among the most corrupt in America.

Way to prove their point, Mr. President.

It’s about time there was a little transparency in Albany.