Seymour P. Lachman, a former New York State senator who quit the Legislature in disgust with the political shenanigans in Albany in the 1990s, and wrote two books that helped spur reforms, died on Jan. 2 at his home in Manhattan. He was 91.

The book told of the corrupting power of money, the outsize influence of lobbyists, and public authorities’ lack of accountability. At his death, Mr. Lachman was director emeritus of the Hugh L. Carey Institute For Government Reform, which he founded in 2008 at Wagner College on Staten Island.