Making Government Honest, Open and Transparent "In my first action as Governor, we implemented a series of self-imposed ethics, campaign finance and lobbying reforms to send a message to all that change is here and it starts with each of us."
On inauguration day the Governor signed five executive orders - each aimed at giving New Yorkers an open, more transparent state government.
His orders instituted tough new ethics rules for state employees - and banned ex employees from lobbying government for TK years. To protect taxpayers, the Governor banned political appointees or elected officials from appearing in state funded advertising.
To open government he instructed state agencies to begin broadcasting all public meetings over the internet.
At the end of January, the Governor and the New York State Legislature agreed to make many of these reforms state law and passed a comprehensive gift ban on lobbyists and quadrupling the penalty for state employees and elected officials who violate the new ethics rules.
Taking Special Interest Money Out of Politics "To neutralize the army of special interests, we must disarm it."
Now Eliot Spitzer and New York State Democrats are fighting for full public financing of state elections.
As a first step Governor Spitzer and Democrats in the State Senate and Assembly have proposed to lower contribution limits dramatically, close loopholes that allow special interests to get around these limits, and sharply reduce contributions from lobbyists and companies that do business with New York State.
Currently Republicans in the State Senate are holding up progress on these reforms. Governor Spitzer and State Democrats plan to continue to fight for them in the upcoming legislative session.
