LETTERS

Letters to the Editor

Posted

There’s no end to corruption in Albany

To the Editor:
The Herald editorial “Albany should resolve to fight corruption” in last week’s paper was a good encapsulation of the problem, including the steps needed to resolve it — but there are also related problems.

New York state legislators, for example, can now “double dip” after they retire if they then choose to return to office, collecting their full pensions as well as their full salaries. If retired teachers, for example, can earn only up to $30,000 per year without jeopardizing their pensions if they decide to return to public service, why not a similar restriction on state legislators? Double dipping for this privileged class is neither fair nor equitable to taxpayers.

Prior to the corruption charge that led to Sheldon Silver’s downfall, he never faced true justice for his attempted cover-up of the Vito Lopez sex scandal, which cost Lopez his Assembly seat. Aren’t attempted bribery, and using taxpayer dollars to pay for it, crimes in New York? Silver had surreptitiously attempted to have Lopez’s accusers paid off with taxpayer dollars to ensure their silence. Such was Silver’s complicity in the attempted cover-up that some $700,000 was provided for his legal defense — courtesy of taxpayers!

Elected officials who are found guilty of having committed illegal or unethical actions related to their offices should be compelled to reimburse the taxpayers for their legal defense. Corruption, I’m sure, is not part of their job description! The citizen-taxpayers shouldn’t be victimized a second time in such instances.

As was proposed in your editorial, legislators convicted of crimes and removed from office should not be eligible to receive their full pensions, which would act as a deterrent to future corruption. I’d suggest, in fairness, that they be reimbursed their pension contributions made over the years, but nothing more.

Robert Rubalsky
East Rockaway