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March 14, 2011
Albany's snooze button and business
Crain's NY Business
by Greg David
Hey! Look who just (a little, anyway) caught on!
"Every single time we arrest a state senator or assemblyman, it should be a jarring wake-up call," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said last week. "Instead, it seems that no matter how many times the alarm goes off, Albany just hits the snooze button."
Last week's indictment of state Sen. Carl Kruger, an assemblyman, a lobbyist and two hospital executives raised the heat on the Legislature to pass ethics reform. Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened to impose a Moreland Commission--an independent investigative panel with broad powers--if the Legislature does not act soon. And ethics reform, which means new rules for legislators and members of the executive branch, is desperately needed because businesses are so dependent on Albany that lobbying seems, at least in some cases, insufficient.
...Real estate interests. One of the most fascinating sections of the charges details Mr. Kruger's efforts to find state funds to help Forest City Ratner pay for infrastructure improvements at its Atlantic Yards development and at the same time help the firm's chief government relations executive get money for Brooklyn's Prospect Park, where his wife served on the board. The U.S. attorney says Mr. Krueger's efforts were the results of bribes Mr. Lipsky paid him with his retainer from Forest City. This makes two black eyes for Forest City. It won approval for a major mixed-use developments in suburban Yonkers only after a city councilperson changed their vote, which the U.S. attorney charges was in response to a bribe from a Forest City consultants. Forest City has not been charged in either case.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Greg David (gingerly) and Michael D. D. White (righteously) look at the Kruger case and Forest City Ratner
Greg David of Crain's New York Business has always been an Atlantic Yards booster, which means he has to approach the charges against state Senator Carl Kruger a bit gingerly, in Albany's snooze button and business....
Posted by eric at March 14, 2011 11:11 PM