Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara and Senator James Skoufis announced today that they will introduce legislation that strips state pensions from anyone impeached by the state legislature. The move follows a New York State Constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2017 which eliminates state pensions for any state employee found to have committed a felony related to their performance in the workplace. The legislation also comes on the heels of the Attorney General’s release this week of a scathing report on sexual harassment committed by sitting Governor Andrew Cuomo and mounting calls for Cuomo’s impeachment. 

To be fully enacted, the legislation would need to pass both houses in two consecutive legislative sessions, and then earn support of New York State voters on a subsequent ballot, a multi-year process. The measure would retroactively strip all impeached officials of their pensions. 

“It’s clear we need to strengthen laws denying state funded pensions to those who abuse their power while in office,” said Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara. “We’ve already passed legislation to ensure that elected officials who violate the public trust can’t retire at taxpayer’s expense and the same principle should apply to state executives who are removed from office, including Governor Cuomo. It’s critical that we close this loophole that would allow a Governor like this to be impeached, removed from office and then retire on the public’s dime.”

“If an elected official is so unfit to serve that legislators are forced to take the once-in-a-century step of impeachment, that official shouldn’t be allowed to feed off the taxpayers of New York State in perpetuity,” said Senator James Skoufis. “Why should an impeached official be held in higher regard than a janitor at the Department of Health or a typist at the Department of Environmental Conservation who commits a felony? They shouldn’t. If a measure like this is the hill Governor Cuomo’s resignation refusal dies on, so be it.”