Ethics Law Aims to Provide Transparency in Albany

A stack of disclosure forms showing how much outside income state lawmakers make and which clients they represent will be made public for the first time this week.

The state’s 2011 ethics law required lawmakers and certain state officials to disclose more about their outside business interests, including a list of clients they represent, than at any previous time.

For lawmakers, those forms are set to be transferred by Sunday to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, which is expected to post them publicly within the next week.

The level of disclosure has been touted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as unprecedented in New York and is expected to shine light on lawmakers’ ties to those they represent.

Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli all were required to disclose their financial holdings earlier this year, though most of the information was previously found on their tax returns, which have traditionally been made available to the media once each year

The new disclosure forms cover all of 2012 and will require lawmakers and certain staff to disclose their level of non-state income in one of 108 ranges. The categories range from $1 to $1,000 on the small end to $10 million or more at the highest end. Previously, lawmakers had to disclose from whom they received outside income, but the income categories were far more broad and redacted from public view.