Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, long an opponent of sweeping reforms in the scandal-scarred Legislature, has privately signaled that he’ll bow to Gov. Cuomo’s sweeping ethics-reform proposal and back its two key planks, The Post has learned.
At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who publicly insists he wants meaningful ethics reform, is privately resisting one of Cuomo’s key proposals, a requirement that all lawmakers disclose the clients they represent in their private law firms, legislative insiders said.
Silver (D-Manhattan) whose income from the huge personal-injury law firm Weitz & Luxenberg has long been kept secret, will agree to disclose the names of his clients — except when an independent panel agrees there would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy — and the amount of his outside income within a “narrow income band,” a source close to Silver said.
Such “narrow band” disclosure would require Silver, estimated to make up to $1 million a year in outside income, to reveal the range, but not the exact amount of his outside earnings.
Another legislative source said Silver, under intense pressure from Cuomo and his fellow Assembly members to pass meaningful ethics reform, concluded the ethics measure was needed to “to help the Legislature get out from under a cloud of scandal.”
Skelos (R-Nassau), an attorney with Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, a large Long Island firm that represents health-care industry clients before state agencies and has a subsidiary that lobbies the Legislature, has in the past backed legislation requiring the disclosure of outside income.
But sources said that Skelos was privately resisting efforts to require him to name his legal clients for fear that some of them would be seen as having a direct interest in state policies he can influence.
Spokeswoman Kelly Cummings insisted that Skelos was open to naming his legal clients, explaining that “pertinent issues related to ethics reform are on the table including client disclosure information.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, has signaled that he’ll name a powerful Moreland Act Commission with sweeping subpoena authority to investigate the Legislature if an agreement on ethics reform isn’t reached.
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Some Senate Democrats are accusing Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of dragging his feet on their request for a legal opinion on the ability of the Senate GOP to restrict the powers of the lieutenant governor.
The request came in response to a controversial vote last week by the Republicans, who hold a narrow, 32-30, majority, to prohibit Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy from casting a tie-breaking vote to pick a new majority leader if the Democrats win any special elections during the next two years, thereby producing a 31-31 split.
One legislative insider said Schneiderman, a longtime senator before winning election in November, may be waiting until Senate Republicans get done reviewing his budget proposal before weighing in with his nonbinding opinion.
Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver will bow to Cuomo on these ethics-reform proposals:
* All lawmakers must disclose the clients they represent in their private law firms.
* All lawmakers must report the amount of their outside income.