EDITORIAL: DiNapoli a step ahead on reform
A corruption investigation has swirled around the previous state comptroller for more than two years, so it's a fine thing that the current comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, has banned pay-to-play deals. He has prohibited the state's public pension fund from doing business with his political donors.
You might think that the previous lax rules were an obvious invitation to misconduct. But it was just business as usual for comptrollers - an infamous 1988 memo by an aide to former Comptroller Ned Regan spelled it out: "Those who give will get." With $500,000 commissions in some cases, the getting was very good.
So, DiNapoli has taken the right step to issue an official ban on such deals. He already has been living by this rule voluntarily. Now it will also apply to anyone who is a candidate for the comptroller's office - a smart safeguard.
But it's also true that events converged on DiNapoli so that he would have appeared negligent not to act. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the pension fund investigator, has crafted a code of conduct that he is about to recommend become state law. And the Securities and Exchange Commission is finishing work on similar national standards. It's not as though the scandals originated in some far-off place; they happened under DiNapoli's predecessor.
DiNapoli is a man of integrity. But the heart of a reformer needs to beat a little faster. hN
