ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to create a powerful new commission to investigate corruption in New York’s Legislature embarrassed by a string of indictments this year may, itself, violate law.

The governor and Legislature also got blowback on a bill to be voted into law Friday aimed at helping taxpayers in municipal labor disputes, but which apparently gives a break to unions.

In an interview Thursday, academic Richard Brodsky said the governor apparently doesn’t have the legal authority to investigate the Legislature. He said the Moreland Act doesn’t allow the executive branch to directly investigate another branch.

“The act itself empowers the governor to convene a commission to ‘examine and investigate the management and affairs of any department, board, bureau or commission of the state,'” said Brodsky, a former Democratic assemblyman who is now with the Wagner School at New York University. “That leaves little doubt that the Legislature is not included.”

The 1907 law says a governor cannot investigate the Legislature directly, but is restricted to investigations of departments, boards, bureaus and commissions within the executive branch. Brodsky said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, however, could investigate the Legislature under the Moreland Act.

The Attorney General’s Office wouldn’t comment Thursday.

Cuomo has said the Moreland Commission he creates will be able to evaluate the extensive records submitted by legislators to the Board of Elections, an executive branch agency. Those records of campaign contributions and spending by candidates are often at the heart of corruption scandals.

“The Moreland Act gives the governor broad powers to investigate public corruption involving the abuse of state contracts and taxpayer dollars, among other things, and to examine the adequacy of election law enforcement,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. “The scope of the Moreland Commission will be spelled out in an executive order.”

Gov. Thomas Dewey in the 1940s and 1950s successfully used Moreland Commissions to investigate private citizens who did business with government, expanding the commission’s scope beyond executive branch agencies. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller succeeded in using a commission to investigate New York City officials.

In the 1980s, commission jurisdiction was broadened further and investigated campaign records of state legislators. But that commission included an assistant attorney general.

Cuomo announced this week that he would create a panel with subpoena powers under the state’s powerful Moreland Act to investigate legislators after he said the Senate and Assembly refused to accept his anti-corruption package of bills amid the latest string of corruption case.

Meanwhile, two think tanks said last-minute changes in closed-door negotiations with legislative leaders weakened Cuomo’s binding arbitration measure meant to help financially strapped cities.

The binding arbitration bill with strong legislative support would require independent arbitrators in protracted labor disputes with municipalities to consider a local government’s ability to pay a settlement.

Cuomo’s proposal a month ago was praised as a way to help local governments facing dwindling populations and tax bases in the face of rising costs for public workers and retirees.

But this week, the starting date of the bill changed, which allows a few powerful public worker unions to continue their arbitration efforts under the old rules.

“The governor has backed away from stronger language capping the cost of salaries and benefits awarded through arbitration,” said E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. “The final bill apparently reflects the governor’s efforts to negotiate a bill acceptable to unions — even though Cuomo was in a strong position to virtually dictate his terms for agreeing to an extension of the arbitration law, which is due to expire June 30.”

The independent Citizens Budget Commission also expressed concern. The bill requires arbitrators to consider the ability of a municipality to pay in a settlement in a dispute with a local union, but doesn’t specify how to determine that, said the commission’s Elizabeth Lynam.

“There were many drafts of this bill,” Azzopardi said. “The one that was ultimately introduced is the final one for which there was agreement.”

—Copyright 2013 Associated Press