Like myriad graft cases before it, the Percoco verdict has led to calls for reforms from government watchdogs. Shortly after Tuesday’s verdict, nine such groups called for a state constitutional amendment to create an independent ethics enforcement agency to fight Albany’s “pay-to-play culture.” (Both companies accused of bribing Mr. Percoco had donated legally to Mr. Cuomo’s campaigns.) Republican opponents of the governor have also piled on, calling on the state attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney to investigate.

For all of that clamor, it seems that there is little legislative ardor to pass new ethics laws in Albany. A budget plan unveiled last week by the Republicans who rule the Senate, for instance, makes no mention of ethics. In the Assembly, where the Democratic majority typically has more appetite for such legislation, even the chamber’s speaker seemed wary of conflating Mr. Percoco’s behavior with others.

“The overwhelming majority of people who take on the job of being in public service do the right thing,” said Carl E. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat who is the Assembly’s speaker. He questioned what state laws might be drafted to prevent corruption.

“What’s the legislative remedy for something that a jury has decided is against the law?” he said.

Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he believed the Legislature was to blame for not banning outside income for lawmakers, a thorny and much-debated issue that was not part of the Percoco trial. “That’s the reform that I’ve been pushing and I’m going to continue to push,” he said, adding he would make it a campaign issue in the fall. (Republicans in the State Senate, whom Mr. Cuomo has worked with in the past, have opposed such limits on income.)

While Mr. Cuomo dismissed the actions of Mr. Percoco as a “total aberration,” editorial boards around the state have said that more must be done, including the governor’s response.



“Gov. Andrew Cuomo takes personal credit for every action of state government, projecting an image of a man in charge and burnishing his credentials to be president,” The Post-Standard of Syracuse wrote. “He ought to take personal responsibility for the corruption in his own executive chamber.”