[somamasoso]

According to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, our system of local government is broken. There are 10,521 units of government that duplicate services creating needless, wasteful bureaucracies. He is proposing legislation to empower citizens and local governments to consolidate or dissolve these redundant entities.

You can read all about it, on the Attorney General's website.

In a December 2008 press release Cuomo said: “Despite New Yorkers drowning for decades in some of the nation’s highest taxes, local leaders have been blocked from reforming local government in an effort to cut government waste and reduce the tax burden. During this economic crisis, leaders have an historic opportunity to fundamentally reform this state’s patchwork quilt of local government entities.

"These layers upon layers of taxing entities have a chokehold on state residents, and antiquated and arcane laws governing them perpetuate government inefficiency. Our goal is to reform those laws so communities, where appropriate, can reduce local government burden and reduce the cost of living in this great state.”

The New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) recently released a report called, "The Gathering Storm, The Challenges Confronting the Future of New York." It was written by Jeff Osinski, Director of Research and Education, New York State Association of Counties.

In the Forward to the NYSAC report, Stephen J. Acquario, Executive Director says: "There is no question that our state faces an important crossroad. We face two possible futures: one where we continue to lose people, businesses and jobs to other states; or one in which we leverage our strengths to rebuild our economy, foster innovation and attract people and businesses.

"It is time that the leaders in this state—state and local leaders—work together to turn this ship of state in a different direction. We need to examine our public policy habits that have caused decades of overspending, overtaxing, over-regulating and overmandating. If our counties and our communities are going to grow again, state
leaders need to fundamentally change the way they do business in Albany."

What is it going to take for the New York State Assembly and Senate to stop being Democrats or Republicans and do what is best for the citizens of New York state?

Is anybody in Albany listening?

We New Yorkers deserve a better government than we've got.

John Tedder
Schuylerville

[Thorwaywhobia]

Good post: interesting reading and informative web links. Thanks.

My only comment is that for what little I follow in the area of politics, my understanding is the current Gov. Paterson has been attempting to address the issues that are raised here: he is currently making major cuts in local government spending.

I have notice recently that there are even a few cable TV commercials critical of his various cost cutting measures: so he most have some very powerful (and deep pocketed) opposition.

Cheers.

[AttableBewNaw]

There are 150 members of the New York State Assembly and 62 Senators. There are 19 million of us. They are seriously outnumbered.

How do you force the politicians in Albany to reform a rotten system that benefits them at the expense of the people of New York? The perception is that the government in New York state is corrupt, unethical, and dishonest, and that nothing can be done. That's just the way it is and nobody can change it. It's politics as usual.

I disagree. We can fix Albany. It is not an impossible task. A serious ethics law is the first step. No meaningful reform will come out of Albany until a real ethics law is passed. Everything else will flow from that. Here is how we can force them to enact a serious ethics law.

Common Cause or the League of Women Voters should write an ethics law for the New York Assembly and Senate. It should be written in plain English so that a fifth grader can read and understand it.

It should be published in all of the daily newspapers in New York state on the same day. That is important. It should take up the entire page. It should be published on their websites as well. At the bottom of the document leave a space for every member of the Assembly and Senate to sign it.

It would be like the signatures on the Declaration of Independence. If the signature isn't legible, print the name too. This will take ethics reform out of the State Capitol in Albany and put it in front of the public in plain view.

The newspapers should also publish the phone numbers, email, and postal addresses of each member of the legislature. The newspapers should ask each reader to contact their representatives and demand that they sign the new ethics law as published in the paper.

The League of Women Voters or Common Cause would be the main contact point for the legislators. They would have to send a letter saying that they supported the ethics law and to please sign their name to it so that their constituents could see it.

This document would be updated every day with the new signatures on the websites of the newspapers until there are enough signatures to make it a law. You would be able to see on a daily basis who supported it and who didn't support it.

This should shame the politicians into doing the right thing, since they won't do it themselves. Voters will be looking for the names of their representatives. If voters don't see their names, they can call them and find out why. If not enough signatures are obtained after 30 days, proceed to step two.

Step 2 would be a daily protest at the State Capitol in Albany. A hundred people a day would do. This would go on every day while the legislature is in session.

If there are still not enough signatures and the legislature goes home, proceed to step three.

Step 3 would be several protesters following each individual legislator 24 hours a day until they sign the document. Everywhere the legislator went, there would be protestors with signs following them.

Eventually, there will be enough signatures. Someone will have to introduce a bill to make the ethics law a real, legal law that the Assembly and Senate must obey or face the consequences. The first person to step up and sign the ethics law in the newspaper should have the privilege of introducing the bill.

After the ethics bill becomes a law, the members of the Assembly and Senate should have to take an oath and proclaim that they have read it, understand it and will act accordingly.

There has got to be a way to reform the politicians in Albany. Business as usual is killing this state. The citizens of New York are being cheated everyday.

Paul Krugman, the Pulitzer Prize winning economist from Princeton University and a New York Times columnist, said on the Bill Maher show last September, "We need a better government than we've got."

He was talking about the federal government in Washington, D.C., but you can apply it to New York state government just as easily.

We need a better government than we've got and we need it now.

[xanaxonlinexanax]

There are 150 members of the New York State Assembly and 62 Senators. There are 19 million of us. They are seriously outnumbered.

I disagree. We can fix Albany. It is not an impossible task. A serious ethics law is the first step. No meaningful reform will come out of Albany until a real ethics law is passed. Everything else will flow from that. Here is how we can force them to enact a serious ethics law.

I am at 'common cause' here with you: but have a few reservations about how - and if - what you propose, can be achieved.

How do we (or the Womans League,ect.) go about codifying ethical norms?

Many acts that I myself would condemn as unethical are not - and could not on a practical basis - be prohibited by law; so I doubt that codifying into law how members of government interact with each other can be either 'clearly defined' or 'enforced'.

Another obstacle to legislating morality and resolving ethical disputes will always come down to the inevitable dilemma of whose ethics are we going to legislate into the law-of-the-land: your ethics, or my ethics. Your worldview, or mine. Your mindset, or mine. Your point-of-view, or mine.

Will whatever the drafters of this bill at the Womans League 'actually' be good for the individual and for society, can it effectively define and establish the duties that our government owe to 'the people'.

I am of the opinion that ethical behavior in society can only be effectively established on a prescriptive basis, and it is for that reason alone, I do sometimes wish society would go back to the days when religion was the sole custodian of 'morality & ethics'. I am not ready for that of course: but we were once pretty much a 'faith-based' society not so long ago, and perhaps that's one reason why even the classical architecture we produced was better - let alone our politicians.

I am hopeful (but skeptical) about your idea of creating an 'ethical culture' in local government that can be made both legally binding and enforceable by 'the people'; I would gladly support your efforts - just show me where to sign-up.

Cheers.

[Ruidselisse]

We're talking about business practices here, things like pay-offs, pay for play, contracts. A lot of what is being discussed and that goes on within state government (or any government) is actually ILL-legal, but the illegal acts are just not pursued or prosecuted. Wink. Nudge. Thanks for the help. See you at the club.

So ... Whose ethics should be codified? Those that best serve the Republic as a whole. And for the LONG TERM.

Until the US Supreme Court revisits the Court's 1886 ruling in MINNEAPOLIS & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY. CO. v. BECKWITH, where a Corporation was, for the first time, granted the rights of Personhood, then there is no way to get business back into the place where it properly belongs within our society -- acting at the Service to and Betterment for Citizens & the Country and not as the Ruler Over the Citizens. Subsequent rulings in the mode of 1886 have lead us to the point where the Court recently chiseled away at the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform laws, allowing more power to the rich and less to those not as fortunate or resourceful.

We need a newly balanced Supreme Court with a different and sharper sense of what a Democracy really is. Hopefully the USA will have such a newly-reconfigured Court before too long.

[mArVHDO6]

A moral compass: but can it codified and legislated. (And Effectively Enforced)
http://www.themoralcompass.co.uk/mor...ss_project.htm

[Qxsumehj]

Senate and Assembly "jobs" should be considered full time. We are paying them $79,500 a year for a job they consider "part time." That is more than the full time pay of most New Yorkers who work 40 hours a week for the entire year. The legislature meets from January to mid-June, several days a week. While they have part time hours, they get full time pay. What are they doing the rest of the year? They should be representing the people of New York at all times.

Let's tell our 62 Senators and 150 Assembly Members that their job is now considered full time. They are not allowed to receive one dime more than their legislative salary in compensation from any other employment or "consultant" source. If they don't like it, they can go back to whatever they were doing before they got elected. That should weed out some of the ones that are in it for the money and the power.

Senators and Assembly Members should also be limited to three, two year terms. Six years is enough. These should not be lifetime career positions. This would also insure a turnover in the ranks. You wouldn't have people hanging around for 30 years for the power trip and the what's in it for me attitude. If we had average citizens in the legislature instead of "professional" politicians, a lot more meaningful work would get done. If you doubt that, let's try it and see.

I read in a letter to the editor that rank and file state workers are prohibited from outside employment with, or financial gain from, companies that do business with state government. Why doesn't this apply to the legislature? It's ridiculous. Senators and Assembly Members should not be able to leave the legislature and go to work for a company that does business with the state for at least 5 years. Period. What is so difficult about that?