Mayor Michael "J.Edgar" Bloomberg disagrees with Cuomos's Idea of the campaign Finance system, After Buying three straight elections

Your money is corrupting

• Last Updated: 12:14 AM, June 2, 2013
• Posted: June 02, 2013

On a recent edition of his radio show, Mayor Bloomberg strongly disagreed with Gov. Cuomo’s idea that cleaning up Albany begins with the state’s adopting the city’s campaign-finance system — including the matching funds the city takes from taxpayers and gives to candidates.

“I don’t think any of these [state legislator scandals] had anything to do with public financing,” Bloomberg said. “What is clear is that they have a lot of corruption. Most of the things that have been in the paper would not be cured by that.”

Mike is right. Now, some might say that a billionaire who spent hundreds of millions of his own dollars in three mayoral campaigns might not be the best man to deliver this message. But the message holds, regardless of who the messenger might be.

Chad Rachman/New York Post

Mayor Bloomberg

We’d go even further. The matching funds create their own incentive for corruption. Look at Dan Halloran, the City Council member neck-deep in political scandal.

One allegation is that Halloran helped negotiate bribes aimed at allowing state Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, to run for mayor of New York City on the Republican line. Another allegation is that the councilmember agreed to do favors for a man in return for $80,000 in cash — which Halloran would use to qualify for a six-to-one match from public funds.