On July 2, 2013, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo appointed the “Commission to Investigate Public Corruption” under the Moreland Act and Executive Law Section 63(8) to probe systemic corruption and the appearance of such corruption in state government, political campaigns and elections in New York State.
The Fair Elections campaign, a bipartisan coalition of good government activists gathered on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to kick off the “Penny-A-Day Keeps Corruption Away” campaign supporting the Moreland Commission’s recommendation in its preliminary report for comprehensive campaign finance reform. They recommendations included using New York City's public matching funds system as the guide for the state's system.
The campaign highlights the fact that the cost of public financing and enforcement is roughly $3 per New Yorker a year, while the cost of ending what the campaign deems “legal bribery” amounts to billions of taxpayer dollars.
At the conclusion of the press conference, which included remarks from Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY and Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, activists collected pennies from people on the street, hoping to build public support for the movement.
Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizen Action of New York said that Fair Elections plans to eventually appeal to elected officials to sign on to their campaign.
“We wanted to start out with the grassroots movement first … we’re going to do it across the state, at a dozen different locations over the course of the next few weeks, then later this month we’ll get sign-ons,” Scharff said.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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