Crains New York - April 8, 2013 - (Page 11)
Rotten to the core:
why NY is so corrupt
N
ew York is much more corrupt than other places,
as U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara suggested last
week in announcing the arrests of state Sen.
Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Daniel Halloran, two Republican county chairmen and two
suburban officials in a brazen scheme to corrupt the GOP mayoral primary and make money on a real estate deal. And that
was before Mr. Bharara announced the arrest of a state assemblyman, caught in a sting with another Bronx assemblyman
who was cooperating with authorities to avoid prosecution.
The question that isn’t getting enough attention is why. Here
is a guide to some of the usual answers and the ones that make
the most sense.
ⅷ It’s because we don’t have public
financing of elections. This is the fa-
vorite of the do-good groups, which
held a press conference to make
their case right after the scandal
broke. They say that the way candidates raise campaign funds is corrupting.New York City proves them
wrong. All the members of the City
Council are elected by participating
in what the experts say is the best
system of public financing in the
country. And many of them have
gone to jail anyway. Meanwhile,
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who
shunned the system, has run the
most honest administration in
history.
There may be a case for public financing, though New York City’s
system stacks the deck in favor of a
few groups (like unions) at the expense of others (like businesses). It
will not end corruption.
ⅷ It’s because New York prosecutors
are better than their peers elsewhere. If
only this were true. Yes, the South-
ern District, which Mr. Bharara
heads, is the most prestigious for
young prosecutors. But the Eastern
District, which covers Brooklyn,
Queens and Long Island, and is
Pols who have
no say in
important
issues are prone
to wrongdoing
combined in the chart below, doesn’t have the same cachet. The U.S.
attorney for the Northern District
of Illinois can attract the best young
lawyers in the Midwest, too. Ditto
for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for
L.A. It’s not like we are comparing
SHADY AREAS
Ranked by federal public corruption convictions
1,963
1976-2010
2002-2011
1,531
1,275
1,005
391
Downstate
New York
370
375
Northern Illinois
(Chicago)
Central California
(L.A.)
Sources: Study by University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson; U.S.
Department of Justice Public Integrity Section annual report
333
District of
Columbia
GREG DAVID
New York to Des Moines.
ⅷ It’s because New York spends so
much money. It is true that projects in
New York are big, like the Aqueduct
casino, where Mr. Smith previously
tried to pull some fast ones, though
he was never charged with a crime.
So this one has some validity.
ⅷ It’s because New York’s election
laws are so stupid. This is Mr.
Bloomberg’s explanation, and he’s
on the money. New York is the only
large city without nonpartisan elections, which creates the kind of opportunity that two city GOP chairmen used to allegedly solicit bribes.
Allowing candidates to run on more
than one party’s line is also corrupting, as the mayor’s manipulation of
the Independence Party shows. So
does the way Liberal Party patronage led to corruption under Rudy
Giuliani.
ⅷ It’s about power and, more important, powerlessness. No one is less in-
fluential than a City Council member, except maybe a New York state
assemblyman or senator. The City
Charter not only makes the mayor
more powerful than his counterparts elsewhere in the country, but
Christine Quinn has made the
council speaker more powerful than
before.
Once, the chairman of the council’s Land Use Committee mattered; now I don’t know who that
person is, nor do I need to. Council
people matter only when there is a
controversial land-use project in
their district, which happens only
rarely. So they spend their time posturing and trying to get as much discretionary money to hand out as the
speaker will give them, which makes
them completely dependent on the
speaker.
It’s the same in Albany,where the
legislative leaders and the governor
decide all issues in small conferences. While the leaders can’t completely ignore the views of their
members, they don’t have to pay
much attention because they control money for member items and
committee assignments that boost
legislators’ pay.
Would you want a job like that,
in which you had no say in all the
important budget and policy issues?
I don’t think so. So the people who
run for these jobs are either happy
to be involved in doing what little
they can to help their districts, or
they are interested in using their
jobs to help themselves. Either way,
they are so far from being the best
and brightest.
April 8, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 11
http://www.mogil.com
http://www.mogil.com
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/podcasts
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 8, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: BANKING
THE LISTS
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE DEALS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS
Crains New York - April 8, 2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130729
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130722
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130715
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130624
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130617
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130603
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130527
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130520
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130513
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130429
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130422
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130415
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130325
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130318
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130225
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130218
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130128
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130121
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130114
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121224
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121217
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121126
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121119
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121029
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120924
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120917
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120827
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120820
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120813
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120730
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120723
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120716
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120625
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120618
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120528
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120521
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120514
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/nxtd
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com