OPINION
| January
6, 2003
New York's
Permanent Legislature
(NYT)
Editorial
The problems with New York's State Legislature are so entrenched, so
embedded in the structure and tradition in Albany that most New Yorkers
believe nothing can ever change. How could it when, thanks to
gerrymandering, legislators might as well be elected for life? And their
permanence is matched only by their powerlessness. All the important
decisions are made by three political bosses — the governor and the leader
of each legislative house. The budget is written in secret code. The
lobbyists have free rein, even with government officials. The list goes on
and on, with many of the worst abuses cataloged recently by Richard Pérez-Peña
and James McKinley Jr. of The New York Times. But a few key reforms could
make all the difference and give New York's 19 million residents the
government they deserve. If the Berlin Wall can come down, there is hope for
Albany.
Create a redistricting commission. The first crack in
New York's petrified Legislature requires a fundamental change in the way
legislators map their own election districts. If there is one single thing
that could relieve the gridlock in Albany, this is it. The Legislature does
this remapping every 10 years, and last year legislators basically mapped
themselves back into office.
To assure that it doesn't happen again, Gov. George Pataki and the
Legislature should have the courage to act now, when the next changes are
still a very distant 10 years away. They should create a nonpartisan
redistricting commission with civil service experts doing the detail work.
The Legislature should vote the final plan up or down — no amendments, no
funny business.
Establish an independent budget office. New York State
runs a $90 billion business that's as hard to follow as the accounting
dodges in the corporate world. Money hides in pockets, flows in mysterious
ways and makes it impossible for anyone other than a few savvy experts to
know what is going on. The state needs an independent budget office much
like Congress's to set revenues and to demand that New York's books are
understandable.
Fix the lobbying control act. Right now, lobbyists do
not have to report what they spend trying to influence state officials. New
Yorkers deserve to know what companies are doing to win the favor of the
people who issue contracts. The Legislature has no excuse not to remedy this
one swiftly since the state's lobbying commission has been pushing for this
change for the last six years.
Reform the campaign finance system. Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer's next stop after Wall Street should be the halls of his own
state capitol. Mr. Spitzer bemoans the uncontrolled way in which New York
politicians raise money for election campaigns, and the resulting cave-ins
to donors on issues like smoking, gambling, car rentals and more. He should
be brave enough to embarrass his colleagues the way he has embarrassed the
stock market's worst operators.
But the attorney general can't fix the law. Only Governor Pataki and the
Legislature can do that. Mr. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and
Joseph Bruno, the Senate leader, have separate reform bills, knowing that
three separate bills in Albany means no bill at all. In Congress, such
differences can be hammered out in a conference committee. Albany's leaders
need to appoint a committee for this critical issue, and let conferees
actually do the real work of crafting a compromise.
Liberate the Legislature. Redistricting aside, there are
other ways to bring life to the Legislature. Senators are still talking
about a startling event last month when Mr. Bruno allowed a bill for gay
rights to go to the floor, even though nobody was sure it would pass. With
an uncertain outcome, the debate suddenly mattered, and a few orators
actually rose to the occasion. In Albany, this was greeted as the
legislative version of Haley's comet.
Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver have absolute control over which bills go to a
vote and which to the shredder. Important bills are rushed through in a
single day and voted on by compliant lawmakers who have never even read
them. The Legislature needs to find a workable system — like the motion to
discharge in Congress — that allows a popular bill to come to the floor
when enough legislators want it. It should give its committees real
responsibility and the power to actually write legislation. And it should
junk its system of proxy voting. Legislators can report to duty in the
morning and wander off, while the record shows that they have voted all day.
If legislators pretend to work, the taxpayers should pretend to send them
paychecks.
End stipends and political pork. To succeed in Albany, a
politician must please the leaders, not the voters. As a result, New York's
lawmakers too often act like a school of minnows. Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver
give out coveted "leadership" stipends to the most obedient. The
system encourages legislators to fixate on the stipends and the small grants
leaders also dole out for projects in the districts of their most loyal
servants. Voters need to recognize that they may be trading their right to
independent representation for a new highway overpass.
Improving New York's Legislature should not be difficult, given where
things are now. One of the keys is keeping a close eye on what happens in
Albany. We need to convince lawmakers that being three hours away from the
state's media hub does not give them protective cover.
NOTE: I remember in Graduate School in 1970 that a similar article
was written - same structure but different names! What a horrible joke!
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