If we weren’t talking about Albany, the lack of serious discussion about ethics reforms for state officials just six weeks from the expected end of the legislative session would be astonishing.
Consider the backdrop: last week former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his conviction on corruption charges; this Thursday ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is likely to meet a similar fate. Both houses of the Legislature have been embarrassed by their longtime leaders—one a Democrat, the other a Republican—who crossed the line from the honest graft that has been a kind of currency in the state capital to the boodling that comes with an all-expense-paid trip to prison when caught.
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