Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, said it’s time for Gov. Eliot Spitzer to speak out about the Troopergate scandal. The Democratic governor held a press conference the day Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a report that said top Spitzer aides conspired to collect and release information about Bruno’s use of state aircraft and police escorts in an attempt to damage him politically. He disciplined staff involved and said he had no knowledge of what had been going on. He has not said much since then and has emphasized that he wants to move on.

Developments continue to unfold, more than a month after the Cuomo report. This week, the Spitzer administration announced that Darren Dopp, the governor’s communications director, would be placed back on the payroll. He earns $175,000 a year. As punishment for his actions in Troopergate, Dopp had been placed on unpaid leave.

“We have to get the governor under oath,” Bruno said on an Albany radio show this morning, citing recent polls that show voters think the governor knew what had been going on and would like him to testify.

Bruno said Spitzer’s decision to place Dopp back on the payroll before ongoing investigations by the Albany County district attorney and state Ethics Commission are completed is “pure arrogance” and shows a “disdain for ethics that should go with public higher office.”

“Darren Dopp was the leader of the pack in this. He should not be rewarded. He should be held accountable,” Bruno said.

Bruno said recent revelations that GOP consultant Roger Stone made a threatening phone call to Spitzer’s 83-year-old father should not be a distraction from finding out the truth. Bruno severed the Republicans’ relationship with Stone after the news came out. Stone has accused Spitzer’s people of cooking up the phone call as a dirty trick, even though the call was traced to his home. Bruno said whoever is responsible for the “dirty trick” is “despicable.” When pressed about whether he thought someone set up Stone, Bruno said he wanted members of the public to draw their own conclusions.