The Legislature, with the agreement of Gov. Hochul (who unfortunately went along), betrayed the New York public and put off for another two years any limits on legislators’ outside income, a pernicious corrupting practice. The ability to be in the pay of special interests was supposed to be capped at $35,000 when they raised their own annual salaries to $142,000 a year, by far the highest in the nation, at the end of 2022.
The outside earnings cap should have been imposed in January 2023, but instead was set for January 2025. That has now been postponed to January 2027. While Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins reward their members who want to cash in on their public offices, they should also do something for the people paying the bills: 20 million New Yorkers.
The public’s ability to see what their government is doing falls under the state Freedom of Information Law, known as FOIL. There are five FOIL reform bills being considered as the state Senate wraps up for the year tomorrow (the Assembly’s last day is next Tuesday).
Three of the bills, mandating that every agency report on its FOIL compliance, limiting the commercial exemptions under FOIL and clarifying the rules on redactions, have already passed the Assembly this session. Stewart-Cousins must put them on the Senate floor before departing for the summer.
Two others, on reducing FOIL response times for agencies and on strengthening when attorneys’ fees can be rewarded, have been approved by the Senate in years past and need to win Assembly passage this year.
But, as we all know, passage by only one chamber isn’t enough. Both partners are required for the reform dance and it’s too often the case that one side will duck out.
But even under current law, FOIL can and should be more liberally interpreted by the state and local governments. Unless a document or a record has someone’s Social Security number or blood type or bank account or child’s birthday or home address or phone number, publish it automatically without having to wait for the press or anyone else to ask.
When FOIL was written a half century ago, this information was on paper stuffed inside of file cabinets or boxes. Now, it’s all a computer, making it effortless to release it to the public.
City Hall has been sitting on records relating to the World Trade Center recovery since 2001 that are being sought by 9/11 families and advocates and is now fighting off FOIL requests. Mayor Adams should turn over the records. If he won’t then should there be a new mayor next year, that mayor should do so.
Another option is for the City Council to direct the city Department of Investigation to conduct a probe of the WTC materials and make a public report. But the Council has yet to approve the DOI resolution. What is the Council waiting for? Maybe they think they are like their Albany counterparts?
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/11/public-access-to-public-records/