Bringing accountability and trust back to the Assembly

Assemblymember Cahill was recently designated the Chairperson of the Assembly Committee on Ethics and Guidance and is a new member of the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Cahill will continue his work to maintain the highest standards of ethical behavior in the Assembly. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, he is committed to keeping the state fiscally sound and passing a responsible budget.

He also served as Vice-Chairperson of the Assembly Steering Committee - which successfully guided a series of reforms that will improve the way the Assembly works on a day-to-day basis. The new internal rules, adopted in a true spirit of bipartisanship with the Assembly Minority, will require a joint conference committee to achieve a more timely state budget and help ensure a public review of state spending.

Making the budget process more open and timely

To help end New York's unacceptable string of late budgets, Assemblymember Cahill sponsored legislation and a constitutional amendment to reform the budget process (A.1, A.2):

• moving the fiscal year start from April 1 to May 1

• enacting a contingency budget if a final budget is not adopted by May 1

• requiring a two-year appropriation for education aid to help schools plan ahead

Restoring the public's faith in elections

Assemblymember Cahill sponsored legislation:

• limiting special interest campaign contributions and providing matching funds to candidates for statewide office and State Legislature who limit contributions received and spending (A.4)

• reforming the state's judicial selection laws to ensure that the most qualified judges serve (A.7, A.8)

• implementing the Help America Vote Act to make voting easier and more accurate (A.5, A.119, A.121, A.122)

• ensuring full voter participation by requiring polling places to be accessible to people with physical disabilities (A.120, Cahill authored)

Ending state authority abuses

Public Authorities enjoy the benefit of taxpayer funding with little of the oversight and accountability we demand from government. The scandals of the New York Bridge Authority and last year's attempted bargain sale of over a thousand miles of the historic Erie Canal to a favored developer makes a strong case for reform. To end abuses of the public trust by state authorities and public benefit corporations, Assemblymember Cahill sponsored legislation (A.3):

• creating a public authority inspector general to oversee authorities

• restricting lobbying on awarding of authority contracts or spending taxpayers' money

These reforms will truly change the way New York does business for the better.