Moreland Commission’s nine-month tab: $350,000
Jimmy Vielkind
ALBANY—The Cuomo-created state panel that investigated public corruption spent over $350,000 in its nine months of existence for travel, information technology and data analysis, records show.
The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption folded in April after Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed during budget talks to disband it. The governor on Monday said he didn't want to set up “another expensive prosecutor's office” when the state is already well-served, and that the legal changes agreed to after the commission disbanded justified its shorter-than-expected lifespan.
But the commission has become a political problem for Cuomo after an expose in the New York Times detailed interactions the governor's aides had with commissioners as they considered subpoenas to the governor's allies. Critics have cried foul, Cuomo said it was simply advice but not interference, and legal experts have differed as to whether the contacts were unlawful as opposed to unseemly.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who criticized Cuomo's decision to end the commission's work, is now taking up its cause and looking into the circumstances of its demise.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/07/8549893/moreland-commissions-nine-month-tab-350000?top-featured-1
