Opinion

Molinaro’s long-needed reforms to clean up Albany

Thursday’s guilty verdicts in the Buffalo Billion trial put the issue of corruption front and center in the race for governor. Andrew Cuomo’s already shown his position by reneging on his promises of reform. Happily, his Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, last week released a comprehensive plan to clean up state government.

Lawmakers will squawk at Molinaro’s ideas, but that’s only more proof of the very filth in Albany he’s highlighting.

In his 23-page plan to clean up the political sleaze that has festered under Cuomo’s reign, the GOP hopeful cites New York’s repeated ranking as one of America’s most corrupt states.

The last three governors, five Senate majority leaders and an Assembly speaker, he notes, were all embroiled in or connected to scandal. By year’s end, four top officials (Shelly Silver, Dean Skelos, Cuomo aide Joe Percoco and economic-development czar Alain Kaloyeros) will have faced trial — all of them convicted, though there’s no verdict yet in Skelos’ retrial.

Molinaro decries the $8.6 billion spent on “economic development” that fuels corruption but fails to boost the economy. He blasts the “influence of special interests,” the “siren call of political careerism” and the lack of competitive elections here, where incumbents win nine out of 10 races.

And he shines a well-needed spotlight on Albany’s general lack of transparency, accountability and independent oversight.

Some of his ideas have been around a while; we’ve backed some and opposed others.

Some are no-brainers: A database of economic-development deals, listing firms’ tax breaks and the jobs they promise, would help stem corruption by making the deals more publicly visible. The Senate passed that this year; the Assembly, under pressure from Cuomo, refused.

Another would create an independent auditor in the comptroller’s office to review state contracts. The Assembly also killed a bill to do basically that.

Molinaro’s other ideas — term limits for state officials, an independent redisticting panel, a ban on political contributions from those seeking government contracts and more — are also on-target.

Some seem like pipe dreams now, but not if the public wakes up. Molinaro’s plainly right to call state politics “a cesspool of corruption”; the only real question is if the voters are angry enough to do something about it.