Political corruption tops New Yorkers' concerns: poll shows

New Yorkers are more concerned about political corruption than other issues, according to a latest poll released here Thursday.

According to the survey, done by Quinnipiac University, 89 percent of the respondents from New York State believe government corruption is a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem in the state today.

In January, Sheldon Silver, 70 and then speaker of New York State Assembly, was taken into custody on five counts of charges following a long-term federal investigation, including using his position in the State Assembly to collect millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. His arrest has triggered a debate over outside income.

An overwhelming 84 percent of the people surveyed say elected officials should be required to disclose the source and amount of income from outside jobs and investments, while 64 percent of the respondents also reckon spouses and live-in partners of elected officials should also be required to disclose the source and size of income.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the incumbent Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Wednesday announced a plan on an ethics reform that would require lawmakers to disclose all outside income exceeding 1,000 U.S. dollars and make lawyers serving in the state legislature identify clients who pay more than 5,000 dollars, with exceptions for sensitive cases. The plan must be approved by the state Legislature.

The survey was done via phone calls from March 11-16 among 1, 228 people, with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points. Endite