Union Consultant Figured Fiscal Impact For Assembly Bills
This is a story so unbelievable that I though someone was trying to be funny. According to the New York Times:
The State Assembly will halt action on all legislation that relied on the financial analyses of an actuary who was being paid by labor unions, and the bills will undergo new reviews, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said on Friday.
The move, which will affect scores of pending bills, came a day after The New York Times reported that the Legislature had been using the actuary, Jonathan Schwartz, to analyze the financial impact of pension benefit bills while he was being paid by labor unions.
Under state law, all pension legislation must be accompanied by “fiscal notes,” which accompany the text of the bills and are intended to explain to the public the cost of whatever changes are being proposed.
Mr. Schwartz prepared fiscal notes on hundreds of union-backed bills involving New York City pensions in recent years, but his financial relationship with the unions was not disclosed.
Mr. Silver’s office said Mr. Schwartz, who acknowledged on Thursday that he skewed his analysis to support the unions, would no longer be used to analyze the bills.
Don’t you wonder what slipped through that Mr. Schwartz worked on? One final point in the Times:
In the interview Thursday, Mr. Schwartz called his job “a step above voodoo” and acknowledged that he erroneously claimed that a controversial early retirement bill now pending in the Legislature would have no cost. “I got a little bit carried away in my formulation,” Mr. Schwartz said.
Yea, that’s what I was thinking, “carried away.” Sheldon Silver and Assembly Democrats have been giving the store away for years. They need to be held accountable. This is a huge breech of the public trust and it’s something very few people know about.
I’m sure the folks at the D&C editorial board are probably busy working on their editorial criticizing Maggie Brooks on the MCC Presidency Search — but they really have a responsibility to inform Rochesterians about what’s going on in Albany.
2 Responses to “Union Consultant Figured Fiscal Impact For Assembly Bills”
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I didnt have to think hard about this one to scream conflict of interest. In the article there is a comment from Senator Joe Bruno that said
Think if there were no Republican Senate how many shenanigans like this would never see the light of day.
There better be a corruption investigation that’s looking into this. No way Shelly didn’t know this guy’s background. He was most likely hired BECAUSE of his union involvement.
Albany DA David Soares has an opportunity to make up for his lackluster investigation into disgraced former Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer’s illegal activities.
But don’t hold your breadth. Democrats prefer to give their own a pass when it comes to this stuff.