Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) has joined a bipartisan group of over 60 Assembly co-sponsors in sponsoring legislation that would permit stripping State pension benefits from any public official convicted of a felony where the public’s trust has been violated (A.7173).

Thiele stated, “We have seen too many politicians who have betrayed the public trust, yet still are eligible to collect a pension. Such an interpretation of the State Constitution is unfathomable and reflects badly on our political system. A public official in the State of New York can currently accept bribes, steal public funds or engage in numerous other forms of public corruption and yet still feel secure in the knowledge that even if convicted of these serious crimes and thrown in jail, there will still be a State pension check sent their way every month for the rest of their lives. Our taxpayers are right to be outraged by this. It should be simple, if you violate your oath of office by committing a crime against the public trust: no pension. A violation of that trust, while in office, demands pecuniary as well as criminal penalty. The current law only regulates officials that joined the pension system after 2011. It is critical that we enact a law that applies to all public officials. The public deserves nothing less.”

The bill would amend the New York State Constitution aiming to strengthen the current “Public Integrity Reform Act,” which only strips pension benefits of convicted officials who first entered the State pension system after the law took effect in November 2011. This bill would apply to any public official, regardless of when he or she first held office.

This is a concept that has been recently embraced by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. At a September Moreland Commission hearing, Mr. Bharara was quoted as saying “The common-sense principle is a simple one: Convicted politicians should not grow old comfortably cushioned by a pension paid for by the very people they betrayed in office.”