Podcast: How will ethics reform take shape?

The prevailing notion among New York political observers is that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will devote some of his State of the State rhetoric on Wednesday to ethics reform. How that will take shape during the legislative session is anyone’s guess, but state Sen. Liz Krueger has some ideas on how to compromise between what (mostly) Democratic legislators will be advocating and what the governor might have the “appetite” for.

Krueger joined Alexis Grenell and I on The Slant Podcast this week to discuss Cuomo’s evolution on ethics, particularly on the topic of closing the controversial “LLC loophole” – which allows companies to create unlimited amounts of limited liability corporations that can each give up to $150,000 in campaign donations – which the governor himself has personally benefited from. Krueger believes that closing the loophole has the support of the Democratic and Independent Democratic Conference, and she is hopeful they can sway "two or three" Republican senators to back such legislation.

Krueger also weighed in on her personal legislative agenda for the coming session, which includes a strong push for a statewide paid family leave program. There are two competing bills in the Senate that would establish such a program, one sponsored by Sen. Jeff Klein and another by Sen. Joseph Addabbo. We pressed Krueger on why she supports the latter, which would draw on the state’s temporary disability insurance program to pay for family leave, as opposed to Klein’s bill that would be funded through the state budget. 

Lastly, we asked Krueger about the Democrats’ efforts to take back the Senate this year, with a strong focus on the April special election to fill Dean Skelos’ vacant seat and the competing narratives in that race.

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