Editor’s note: This is the second of four in a series of articles on a debate held by The Post-Journal and The OBSERVER between Republican state Sen. Cathy Young and Democratic opponent Lee Hyson.

The candidates running for New York State Senate are outlining contrasting ethics reforms as corruption continues to loom over Albany.

The Nov. 8 election will see a race between Republican incumbent Cathy Young and Democratic opponent Lee Hyson for the Senate’s 57th District, which is comprised of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany counties and the lower half of Livingston County. Young, R-C-I-Olean, began the ethics discussion by stating that there’s no one proposal or “magic silver bullet” that will solve the growing distrust in Albany.

With the recent corruption case involving bid rigging and bribery among former aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and SUNY Polytech, Young said changes to the procurement process are warranted as she’d like to see more oversight of contracts by the State Comptroller’s Office. Young said she was sickened and disappointed by the recent news regarding SUNY Polytech as it shows there’s more work ahead.

“I think that we need another set of eyes and public accountability,” Young said. “A few years ago, the governor took away the comptroller’s oversight of contracts that were through the SUNY system, and we need to change it back. That wasn’t a good direction to take as evidenced by recent news.”

At the same time, Young said tougher penalties are needed to deal with bid rigging.

“If someone is going to accept a bribe or rig a bid or do something that’s illegal, then there are laws against that. It shows that we need to root out people who are breaking the law and violating the public’s trust.”

For Hyson, limiting officials to eight years in office, or four terms, is a reform that’s needed in order to limit the legislature’s power. Term limits need to go beyond leadership positions and cover every legislator as Hyson said he’d limit himself to eight years in office.

“We’re listed as one of the top states when it comes to corruption,” Hyson said. “Getting that turnover would be a good thing in Albany.”

In rebuttal, Young said she’s supported term limits for Senate leadership positions. Young said the only caveat is that it’s a seniority-driven system in Albany as she’s worked hard to get to a top leadership position.

“If you get term limits in place, then you will make sure that New York City controls everything from now to eternity. As we’ve seen in past, it’s been extremely destructive to Upstate,” she said.

Hyson said the LLC loophole is at the center of many stories on ethics issues in Albany with former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Republican Senate Majority Dean Skelos. Hyson said money flowing into politics needs to be reduced and money coming outside the district must be examined.

“I think it’s one of the ways that we can ensure leaders are representing the interests of the district without less influence from outside players that aren’t serving the interest of the district,” he said.

Young came back at Hyson by stating that the whole campaign finance system needs to be reformed, not just one area.

“If you limit LLCs, you also have to limit labor because unions have all these different subdivisions and they’re able to contribute enormous amounts of money,” she said. “Either you reform the entire system or you go forward, but Citizens United put a new element into the whole campaign finance system. We took steps this year to address some limitations and donations.”

Both candidates say they would like to see the state constitution changed to include the forfeiture of pensions if a state official is convicted of a crime while holding office. Young said she’d like to see legislators return to the State Capitol in January and pass a resolution to allow for a public referendum on whether the state constitution should change to allow pension stripping. State legislators must pass a resolution during next session to allow for a public referendum in the November 2017 election.