The legislature’s resident ethics panel has decided that it’s alright for Albany lawmakers to accept food and drink at lobbyist-sponsored events, nay it’s one of their “responsibilities.” In 2007 a law forbade officials from accepting gifts of more than “nominal value,” so some outside watchdog organizations are outraged by the apparent exception. "Legislators should be meeting with their constituents, but the issue is whether it has to be over complimentary shrimp and scotch," Public Integrity Commission Executive Director Barry Ginsberg told the Daily News.
In the recent decision it was determined that the previous gift ban doesn’t apply to “widely attended” events (by the legislature panel’s definition that means more than 25 people, by the PIC’s, more than 25 in addition to lobbyists), like the big lobbyist-funded dinners that have become a tradition in the state capitol. According to the legislature commission the parties give "the opportunity to meet and interact with local constituents or with constituencies who have positions on existing laws or legislative proposals."
Though Ginsberg, whose organization has fined 10 lobbying groups for holding the events, called the decision “kind of odd”, Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Group says it's politics as usual. "Since the legislative ethics commission is a creature of the Legislature, it has always historically come down on the weaker side of the law," Horner said. Recently the Times reported on how lobbyists rub elbows with lawmakers in a supposedly off-limits back hallway of the State Assembly.
