McGrath, Kaminsky tussle over ethics

Candidates in the April 19 election to fill the South Shore’s vacant state Senate seat clashed this week over lawmakers accepting outside income.

Democrat Todd Kaminsky criticzed Republican Chris McGrath’s stated intention to continue working as a personal injury attorney if elected. Kaminsky said that McGrath’s firm in Garden City, Sullivan Papain Block McGrath and Cannavo P.C., at which McGrath is a partner, has sued state agencies that he would have oversight over if elected, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Long Island Power Authority, New York Racing Association and the State University of New York System.

McGrath campaign spokesman Marcus Povinelli said the lawyer would not represent any client whose matter conflicts with his office as a senator.

Povinelli charged that Kaminsky voted to give himself a pay raise at the taxpayers’ expense, referring to the Ethics Reform Act of 2015, which the assemblyman co-sponsored last year. The bill would have increased the $79,500 legislative base salary to a range between $112,500 and $174,000 in exchange for a ban on elected officials receiving income from outside jobs. 

Kaminsky’s campaign platform has focused on rooting out political corruption at the state and local levels, including the type of extortion and bribery charges that former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was convicted of in December and led to his ouster. 

“I promise to never accept outside income if elected because I refuse to take the taxpayers’ trust for granted,” Kamindky said in a statement.

In March, the Assembly passed an ethics reform bill limiting lawmakers’ outside income to $69,600 — 40 percent of the annual salary of state Supreme Court justices — and Kaminsky voted for the bill although it fell short of the outright ban his legislation called for.