Could New York's corruption grade get any worse? Well, it did

Crain's New York reports:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pushed the legislature to enact a series of ethics reforms in response to scandals and public pressure, but public integrity in New York is worse today than it was three years ago, according to a 50-state analysis released Monday.

The Empire State earned a grade of D-, dropping a shade from the D it was slapped with in the report’s first iteration.

On the bright side, New York moved up four spots to 33rd best in the nation, indicating progress relative to the other 49 states.

The study, a collaborative effort by the Center for Public Integrity and the international open-governance group Global Integrity, both based in Washington, D.C., did not look kindly on any state, granting no A’s or B’s, and just one C, to Alaska. Connecticut was third, with a C-, while New Jersey’s D was good for 19th. Eleven states failed.

There was no specific metric for convictions, but the 14 resignations by New York state legislators for ethical breaches since the beginning of 2012 undoubtedly weighed on analysts’ scoring, as did the recent indictments of then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and then-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Reforms, including a revamped enforcement structure, easier-to-apply bribery laws and more specific income-disclosure rules for lawmakers apparently did not impress the judges much.

Big government does mean corruption. Just a reminder.