ALBANY – The leaders of the Legislature, reeling from the corruption indictment of Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, called yesterday for an overhaul of New York’s notoriously porous ethics laws, including those addressing outside income.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who earns an undisclosed income from powerhouse Manhattan law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, wants to tighten the existing rules as well as provide for further disclosure of information about outside income, said spokesman Dan Weiller.
But Silver has yet to determine what reforms he’s prepared to back, and won’t do so until he consults other Democratic members of the Assembly, said Weiller.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-LI), who also earns an undisclosed sum from a private law practice, told The Post last night that he, too, is willing to toughen legislative ethics requirements.
“Yes, we’re prepared to revisit the ethics requirements for the Legislature,” said Skelos spokesman John McArdle.
The current ethics laws allow state lawmakers – whose official salaries can exceed $120,000 a year and are the third highest in the nation – to earn unlimited amounts of outside income.
They are required to disclose a general range of those earnings, but the information is kept secret by the Legislative Ethics Commission, which is controlled by Silver and Skelos.
Seminerio, a veteran Queens Democrat, was charged Wednesday in a federal indictment with illegally receiving more than $500,000 to lobby his fellow lawmakers and Gov. Paterson’s administration. He was allegedly exerting influence on behalf of an unnamed hospital and other interests with business before the state.
The money was paid to Marc Consultants, a firm the assemblyman listed as a source of income on his annual ethics disclosure form.
But because of the existing state law, neither the amount of his earnings nor the names of his clients were made public.
Earlier this year, former Queens Democratic Assemblyman and powerful union leader Brian McLaughlin pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges stemming from his theft of more than $2 million in state and union funds.