Richard Brodsky, who persuaded his fellow state legislators to impose a monitor over 700 quasi-public authorities that had borrowed $150 billion on behalf of New Yorkers with no oversight, died on April 8 at his home in Greenburgh, N.Y. He was 73.

The cause was a heart attack, his daughter Emilyn said. He had shown symptoms of the coronavirus, she said, but also had a heart condition. Test results received after he died showed he did not have the disease.

A 14-term Democratic assemblyman from Westchester, Mr. Brodsky was regarded as a sometimes discordant, sometimes quixotic conscience of the State Legislature.

Representing the Lower Hudson Valley from 1983 through 2010, he was a champion of the environment, a critic of safety precautions at the Indian Point nuclear power plant and a supporter of universal internet access.