“Each day that ethics reforms lie dormant is another stunning example of the Assembly leadership’s willingness to protect their cronies who have stolen from the public and abused their power. We were reassured by the new leadership that meaningful ethics reform would become a reality and now, over a year later, we are still waiting.

“Pension forfeiture for corrupt lawmakers is a common-sense reform that the overwhelming majority of the public supports, and downstate special interests are choosing to ignore reality and perpetuate wrongdoing. That is appalling. Corrupt lawmakers should never be carted off in handcuffs only to collect hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money for their years of criminal activities. My hope is that this bipartisan effort gets passed before the end of session, and I won’t stop fighting until it is a reality.