Set the Senate straight

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was absolutely right to swiftly sanction the Bronx’s Luis Sepúlveda, stripping him of committee assignments, after his arrest this week on charges he assaulted his wife. (Ironically, he was chairman of the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee.) Innocent until proven guilty, Sepúlveda can’t be expelled from office on an accusation — but it’s sensible to make him step back him from Senate privileges pending resolution of the case. The back-benching should open the door to an overdue reform. Sepúlveda is the only Democrat in the overwhelmingly Democratic chamber who pockets buckets of outside income. To avoid the appearance and reality of corrupting conflicts, the U.S. Congress restricts such dollars at 15% of the legislative salary. The Senate has special cause to do the same. Under decades of heavy-handed GOP rule, big bucks and sometimes dirty bucks for key senators from all kinds of special interests were the norm, making the public rightly wonder which masters pols were serving. On paper, at least, Stewart-Cousins and the rest of her leadership team say they’d like to cap the sums. The problem is, Speaker Carl Heastie and the Assembly won’t agree. You’d think Heastie would be allergic to a corrupting influence that helped land his predecessor Shelly Silver in federal prison. But he resists, as a number of his colleagues have lucratively hung out their shingles. That’s no reason why the Senate can’t move on its own, for its own members, under its own rules. The two houses have districts that differ greatly in size. Their rules vary. Their constitutional and legal duties are distinct. Only the Senate handles nominations and confirmations for executive positions, boards, authorities and judgeships. Without the Assembly on board, Stewart-Cousins and her conference could lead the way. Why don’t they?