There's a budget deal in Albany but there are plenty of questions hovering over the agreement which dips its toes in the pool of ethics reform but resists taking a deeper plunge.

Tom Precious of The Buffalo News points out that while the late-night deal forces lawmakers who work as lawyers to disclose their clients' names, it "allows either of two state agencies to provide exemptions for a host of reasons, including keeping client information secret if disclosing the name of a client would amount to an 'invasion of personal privacy' or if 'undue harm' would be done to lawyer-client confidentiality."

It sounds like that's the makings of a mile-wide loophole – although lawmakers will be forced to come close to punching a timecard to collect their travel expenses to prove that they're in the State Capitol.

To get all of this passed before Wednesday, the governor must issue what's known as "a message of necessity" to waive the requirement that bills age for three days on the desk of lawmakers so that they can actually read the legislation in front of them before voting on it.

In this case, the only necessity seems to be for the governor to beat the clock. But for plenty of other big issues confronting the state, it's still ticking.

 

Bob Hardt