ALBANY – New York State Assemblyman Gary Finch (R-Springport) is blaming Democrats for stalling a bill for pension reform in Albany.
The assemblyman, who sponsored a bill to strip pensions from public officials who commit felonies related to their state work, says bipartisanship is standing in the way of progress when it comes to public ethics reform in the state capital.
Finch’s bill failed to pass the Democratic controlled Assembly Committee on Governmental Employees on Tuesday.
“At some point, the public just isn’t going to accept that Democrats don’t pass bills that are sponsored by Republicans,” said Finch. “New Yorkers want bipartisanship and collaboration, and they badly want public ethics reform. Advancing this legislation would have delivered both. Democrats delivered neither.”
The piece of legislation was tabled, meaning the committee could take it up again at its next meeting.
Finch’s push for ethics reform comes more than a year after ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Leader Dean Skelos were both hit with corruption charges and removed from office.
Said Finch, “I can’t believe that Democrats need more time to consider this. This is not a bill rife with arcane language and complex externalities. Either you think families who are saving for college and scraping buy to pay their mortgage should be paying for Sheldon Silver’s retirement, or you don’t. Assembly Republicans don’t. That is why we drafted this bill. We hoped Democrats would join us in doing the right thing. It’s disappointing.”