Last week, another disgraced state lawmaker, Nick Spano, pleaded guilty to federal tax-fraud charges. The Legislature’s crime wave, it seems, never ends — and with sitting members practically abetting the criminals.
Yet now Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver thinks these guys should get a pay hike. Just what does he take New Yorkers for? If Silver gets his way, it will only reinforce the notion that New York not only tolerates corruption from elected officials but also rewards it.
Spano, a longtime Albany power broker and a former state senator, pleaded guilty in federal court to a complex tax-fraud scheme. The federal charge against him detailed how, from 1993 to 2008, he earned more than $480,000 in “consulting” fees from an insurance company that held a lucrative state contract.
Spano’s plea comes on the heels of a long line of New York officials who have used their positions for illicit gain. Indeed, the last decade has seen a mind-boggling number of legislators charged with and convicted of serious crimes.
Yet New Yorkers have seen little real concern from (as yet?) nonindicted lawmakers. If anything, the Legislature has acted as an enabler — handing out “member-item” grants to the crooks and bribing them with leadership positions.
Consider: Since 2000, five Assembly members and four senators (not including Spano) have been convicted of felonies — felonies! — ranging from receiving bribes and embezzlement to outright theft. Another five have been convicted of misdemeanors. Three former senators and one current assemblyman face pending corruption charges.
* In December 2011, Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) tearfully pleaded guilty to four federal crimes, including two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, in which he admitted receiving bribes in return for political favors.
Kruger was one of the “four amigos,” including Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) and Hiram Monseratte (D-Queens), who held the balance of power in a closely divided body. When the Democrats managed to take slim control of the Senate in 2009, Republicans attempted to retain their majority by courting them (their stench notwithstanding).
* The Senate voted to expel Monseratte following his December 2009 conviction for assaulting his girlfriend.
* In 2010, a joint investigation by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the US attorney in Brooklyn led to a federal indictment charging Espada with embezzling in excess of a half-million dollars from the Soundview (Bronx) medical clinics he had founded. In essence, Espada is accused of looting this “charity” — financed by you, the taxpayer.
Espada, thankfully, lost his re-election bid in the 2010 Democratic primary — but in August 2011, it was reported that the lame duck had run up nearly $750,000 in expenses during his last three months in office. None of the legislators now clamoring for a raise — not one! — tried to stop him.
* In 2011, a federal appellate court, after setting aside a prior conviction, authorized the retrial of former Sen. Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) — the longtime Senate majority leader — for depriving the public of his “honest services.”
* In 2010, a federal judge sentenced former Bronx Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. to seven years in prison after Gonzalez pleaded guilty to stealing more than $700,000 from nonprofit groups for which he’d obtained taxpayer money.
* In 2009, Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Queens) was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty to promoting the interests of Jamaica Hospital in exchange for payments totaling more than $300,000.
* Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Queens), who had also handed out “member items,” was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for embezzlement, fraud and receiving bribes
* In 2009, former Brooklyn Assemblywoman Diane Gordon (D-Brooklyn) was sentenced to two to six years in state prison for receiving bribes.
* By 2007, Clarence Norman Jr. (D-Brooklyn), the deposed Democratic assemblyman and Brooklyn party leader, had been convicted three times in 17 months on corruption charges that included extorting money from judicial candidates in exchange for party support.
It’s hard to believe that Silver, speaker since 1994, and his colleagues could be so oblivious to the crime wave surrounding them. The looting of member-item grants funneled to nonprofits has gone on for years and has been reported on extensively.
So here’s a proposition for Silver: If the Assembly and Senate can go five years without having a single member convicted, he gets his raise. Conversely, every time a legislator or ex-legislator is convicted of a crime related to his office, all legislative salaries get cut.
Taxpayers no doubt would save a lot of money under this formula.
Michael E. Bongiorno was Rockland County district attorney from 1995 to 2007 and president of the New York State District Attorneys Association from 2006 to 2007.