The Empire Page

Background: This is a continuation in a series of interviews we are conducting with people running for statewide office this fall.  Dan Donovan, currently Staten Island District Attorney, is the Republican and Conservative Party nominee for Attorney General of NYS.

 

Empire Page: The last two NYS Attorneys General focused much of their attention on Wall Street.  Is that the proper role for the NYS Attorney General and will that be your primary focus if elected?

Donovan:  The two previous attorney general administrations had their own priorities.  My priority will be to root out public corruption in our state government.  I’ll do this by seeking original jurisdiction over all public corruption cases, so that the AG can pursue public corruption anywhere and everywhere it occurs. 

Only an independent attorney general can impartially investigate matters that local authorities may be reluctant to prosecute, and only a statewide official will have the resources necessary to prosecute complex crimes of corruption and conspiracy.  Moving jurisdiction to the State Attorney General would alleviate the burden from these local offices and create a more robust system for pursuing public corruption.

It’s critical that we restore integrity back in our state government and tackling public corruption is the first step.  New Yorkers have lost faith in their elected officials and unfortunately, much of that is justified.  As Attorney General, I’ll work to restore that confidence and get our government back on the right track.

Empire Page: On your website you talk about "Reforming Albany".  What can the Attorney General do to "reform Albany"?

Donovan:  Increasing transparency and accountability in Albany is critical.  As Attorney General, I will make rooting out public corruption my priority. This includes implementing measures that will act as a deterrent, to prevent corruption and cheating before it even occurs.  For example, we need more robust measures in place to ensure the integrity of ‘member items’ (taxpayer-funded grants) awarded by our state legislators.  I’ll hold legislators accountable for their member items by requiring them to attest that they won’t personally benefit from the allocation of taxpayer money.  Today, we only require this of the recipient – isn’t it fair we hold our elected officials to the same standard?

Additionally, I’ll work to vigorously pursue disclosure of legislators’ outside income.  New York City has rigorous disclosure requirements for city officials, and we should hold our state officials to that same high standard.

Tackling public corruption by increasing transparency and accountability is the first step in reforming our state capitol.

 

Empire Page:  On your website you state that if elected you will "work with localities to protect residents from never-ending property tax increases".  How can the Attorney General accomplish that goal?  Doesn't that require action by the Legislature?

 

Donovan: If elected Attorney General, I will continue to aggressively pursue Medicaid fraud in communities across our state and when monies are recovered, return local communities their fair share.

New York State has the highest Medicaid costs in the country.

Unlike other states, our local municipalities are responsible for paying a portion of the state’s burden. Forced to pay these fixed costs, our local communities raise taxes to help pay for other critical services. In today’s economic climate and given the current situation with our state budget, many communities are suffocating under this burden.

To help alleviate that burden, I believe that any money recovered from Medicaid fraud investigations should be fairly redistributed back to the local communities where it was uncovered. Today, this doesn’t happen. Local communities don’t get their fair share back and the majority of this money is returned to state coffers. If we do this, it will have a two-fold effect.  It will incentivize local municipalities to be a partner in rooting out Medicaid fraud and also return much needed funding to local coffers to help lower taxes and pay for police officers, firefighters, libraries and community centers.

 

Empire Page:  Last year Attorney General Cuomo advanced a proposal to that would create a new 13-person board to manage the state's retirement fund.  Today the responsibility rests solely with the NYS Comptroller.  What are your views on how best to manage the state's retirement system?

Donovan:  On July 29, I issued a call for common sense measures to increase the integrity of the pension fund, prevent fraud and increase transparency.  The specific measures I proposed include:

• Calling for the Attorney General?s office to act as the official lawyer for the public pension system to reign in pay-to-play schemes and establish strict standards under which individuals can do business with the pension fund.
• Creating an office of pension litigation within the Investor Protection Bureau to work with the State Comptroller to select the outside counsel used to represent the pension fund in any class action litigation undertaken on the fund?s behalf to ensure that there?s a system of checks and balances in place, that no conflicts of interest exist and the relationship is free from any questions of pay-to-play.
• Proposing that any investment manager who does business with the pension fund be prohibited from making political contributions to the State Comptroller, candidates for State Comptroller, and trustees of any pension fund in the state (who are elected officials) for a period of five years.

It's time to adopt more stringent rules to ensure that the investment managers selected to manage retirees? funds are chosen based on merit and performance, not back room deals. The state must safeguard the integrity of the pension funds to ensure that we continue to meet our obligations to retirees for generations to come.

#