Capital Region senators want to criminalize violation of state's open government laws

ALBANY – Republican state senators from Glenville and Halfmoon have introduced legislation that create a criminal penalty for violating the state’s open government and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Senators Jim Tedisco, of Glenville, and Daphne Jordan, of Halfmoon, announced the legislation Monday as controversy surrounding Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes continues to mount. The proposed bill appears to be sparked by a recent court decision ruling in favor of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank, which requested data from Cuomo’s administration related to deaths of nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals last year and later died from the infectious disease.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O’Connor ordered the administration to release the data as well as pay the Empire Center’s legal fees, which, under current laws, would be a cost paid by taxpayers, the senators said.

“Justice Kimberly O’Connor should have been able to put the judgment and onus of paying legal fees and any other fines on the governor and his senior staff and not taxpayers,” Tedisco said in a news release. “Asking taxpayers pay for Cuomo or any other governor’s dereliction of duty throws salt into the wound they may create through lies and deception. This devastating loss of New Yorkers in our nursing homes and ensuing cover-up would be deemed a criminal act.”

Read more: https://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/291561/capital-region-senators-want-to-criminalize-violation-of-states-open-government-laws/