They’ll believe it when they see it.

That’s the reaction from good-government advocates today after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, told The Daily News that an ethics bill had been agreed to with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was holding out.

“What’s going to happen, we don’t know yet,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “There’s no bill language out, we’ve not seen any. And the discussions seem like a moving target. Certainly we’re hoping for independent oversight and adequate disclosure.”

The Daily News reported today that Silver and the governor have agreed to an ethics package could give the Public Integrity Commission, which oversees the executive branch, the power to investigate the Legislature as well.

The move is most likely an attempt to prod Skelos on passing some sort of ethics measure. Skelos maintained during the budget season that focus should remain on passing a spending plan. The 2011-12 fiscal year budget passed last week.

Reform advocates also want greater disclosure of lawmakers’ outside income and more information on legislators’ whose law firms have clients that do business with the state.

The fact that both houses of the Legislature is home to lawmakers who moonlight as private-practice attorneys (including Silver) could be problematic for a robust ethics law.

“I think that’s going to be the hurdle they have to get over,” said Barbara Bartoletti of the New York League of Women Voters.

In the governor’s back pocket is the power to initiate a Moreland Commission to investigate the Legislature. The move is seen as one similar to Cuomo’s threat to use budget extenders if lawmakers had failed to agree on a spending plan.

“I think that’s his hammer during the ethics discussions,” Bartoletti said. “If the Legislature doesn’t come out with an ethics bill, I think this governor, because he had the experience as an attorney general, I think he would very willing to use it.”

Update — Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto notes in a statement that a formal agreement has not been reached:

“We have had productive conversations with both Assembly and the Senate but this isn’t horseshoes: close doesn’t count. We are focusing on closure one way or the other over the next few weeks.”

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