Our New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, is once again ahead of the curve. I say that because, according to several reports, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is about to implement a ban on campaign contributions by any firms that deal with our pension funds. Tommy has made that reality as we head into the Comptrollers race for 2010.
The general term that everyone refers to regarding influential donations is "Pay-To-Play". DiNapoli will not have a repeat of the disaster that haunted Hevesi during his last years in the office.The SEC is truly concerned with the appearance if impropriety when large corporations pay off politicians looking for good favor in the future. The public needs to have confidence in the investments of the pension fund.
The one point that I disagree with Tom on, is it's limited to companies that are looking to start doing business with the state now, rather than those who have already been doing business here. Sounds like a loophole to me.
I read this paragraph on the SEC website: Cuomo and the SEC have been investigating the use of politically connected placement agents tied to the fund. The middlemen received millions of dollars in fees for getting business through the fund under former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
If only I could only snap my fingers and reveal all of what I've been hearing on the influence of big money and the ties to business contracts once a candidate wins. It's really quite sad, but it's all too often that that's how it is. Tom's position is no different. I'm glad he's made this bold step.
With about a million retired and employed employees, looking for the state comptrollers office for a secure retirement, DiNapoli and all who work within that function have to keep contributing interests and the challenge of their office separate. As dismal as the numbers are now, we don't want his office to resemble the State Senate now would we?
6 comments:
How about local elected officials not taking any funds from people doing business with the City of Kingston?
How about County officials getting trips to view other jails, cigars, etc...from Jail contractors?
How about State Senators and Representatives taking money from Teacher union, etc...
Hey Mike- hard to beat the combination- big business- big money- what has to happen are new ethic laws with TEETH
take care and tell the good folks of the area, Kingston Area Public Access is almost back and well
Shelly z
What is the point? A business can donate to the State, County or Town committee and they in turn can hand it to a candidate.
The voters had an opportunity to weigh in on some of this when Hevesi ran for re-election a few years ago. Granted we didn't know about everything yet, but we knew enough and Hevesi still won in a land slide.
I would be interested to know where some of our local politicians stood on Hevesi back then and hold their feet to the fire if they supported him despite the allegations that were surfacing.
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