Assembly Democrats say they want to take away pensions from lawmakers convicted of crimes or corruption, but they have a long list of reasons why it’s been so hard to accomplish.
“I think there’s just differences of opinion in the Democratic conference. We have a lot of different opinions and a lot more people than the Senate does, also representing much more
diversity, so it’s harder, ” Assemblywoman Sandy Galef (D-Ossining) told The Post on Thursday.
Galef is sponsoring legislation for pension reforms that mirrors a Senate bill sponsored by Carl Marcellino (R-LI).
But, she said, there are many stumbling blocks to ratifying a measure that is supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a vast majority of New York voters.
“There were outside influences saying it shouldn’t be applied to public employees making under a certain amount of money and what’s the impact on the families,” Galef said.
She blamed members of both the Assembly and Senate for not reaching a compromise.
“We could have corrected it with joint legislative committees. We could have taken the bill that passed in our house and the bill that passed in their house and tried to work out the differences,” she said.
Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-Mount Kisco), who has introduced pension forfeiture bills for the past three years, said he was hopeful his colleagues would act.
“You had the speaker of the state Assembly include pension forfeiture in his opening remarks for the New York state legislative session. In light of recent events, this has to be done in short order,” Buchwald said, referring to the corruption convictions of ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate leader Dean Skelos.
Both are collecting pensions — $79,222 a year for Silver and $95,833 for Skelos.
Cuomo on Thursday blasted the Legislature’s inaction.
“I think it’s terrible. I think it’s insulting to the public. I’m outraged as a taxpaying citizen. There’s no excuse for it,” he said.
Michael Wyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), said pension reform is expected to be enacted this year.
“Last year we passed a bill which everyone agreed to, however, the constitutional amendment language did not match the bill,” he said.
“We passed an amendment that matched the bill, which had the language that should have been included in the first place. We’re committed to passing a measure once again this year to strip pensions from corrupt public officials.”
Currently, only lawmakers elected after 2011 and convicted of crimes can have their pensions revoked. The proposed changes would extend the law to every lawmaker convicted on criminal charges.