Our error, Albany’s mistake

In an editorial last week, “Too late on show and tell,” we accused Gov. Hochul, Attorney General Tish James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli of being three months tardy in submitting their mandatory annual ethics forms. We were wrong. It turns out all three incumbents met the statutory May 16 deadline to file their personal financial disclosure statements with the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the soon-to-expire JCOPE.

We regret the goof and apologize to the three public servants.

But our flub doesn’t change our larger point that the law is flawed. The problem arises from the fact that when Albany pols moved up the date of primary elections from September to June, they neglected to adjust the corresponding disclosure-form due dates. Why? Because Albany never checks the details on anything.

It used to be that incumbents always filed their forms on May 15 (this year that was a Sunday, so May 16 became the date). After that would always come the filing date for non-incumbents, 10 days after the launch of their candidacies.

But now, candidacies begin before May 15, and some start as early as February, essentially reversing the statute’s original intended meaning.

When we asked JCOPE which of the two filing dates people who are both incumbents and candidates are supposed to use, the response was that mid-May was the correct date for incumbents. But why, we asked, since the same individuals became candidates earlier? What JCOPE failed to tell us is that the law specifically addresses when a person is simultaneously an incumbent and a candidate, saying they satisfy the requirements by complying only with the incumbent deadline, not the candidate one.

The clear original intent of the legal language, discernible by looking at similar edicts in the exact same section of the law, was for incumbents to use the earlier date. The problem is lawmakers never contemplated campaigns starting early in the year. Now that they do, the law foolishly makes some challengers file months before incumbents. Typical Albany.