Brennan Center for Justice

The Post - Standard, Syracuse, N.Y

October 17, 2004

Keep Pressing Albany Reform

Stringer Resolutions Need Support

By Jeremy Creelan and Lawrence D. Norden

Here’s some aggravating news you may have read about in the past few weeks: As reported in the Syracuse Post-Standard, the four- county region’s schools were shortchanged by $67million this year because the New York State Legislature failed to comply with a court order and come up with a fair funding formula for the state’s public schools.

In most other states, this would be a scandal. In New York, it was expected. The Legislature has repeatedly failed to pass legislation in the face of some of the state’s most serious problems.

To name just a few: For years, local governments in Central and Upstate New York have paid more than their fair share to cover Medicaid costs, workers’ compensation premiums have spiraled out of control, the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws have wasted lives and resources despite widespread agreement that reform is needed, and this year marked the 20th late budget in a row.

One would be hard-pressed to find a senator or Assembly member who believes that the Legislature should not provide solutions to these problems. Yet the Legislature has repeatedly failed to reach agreement on legislation on these and other critical issues year after year.

To be sure, policy and partisan differences explain much of the substantive reasons for Albany’s gridlock. But there is also a systemic problem with the way our Legislature functions.

In New York, unlike in most states and in Congress, conference committees are not routinely used to resolve differences between the Assembly and the Senate to reach common ground for the benefit of New Yorkers.

Legislative committees that, in most legislatures provide a forum for deliberation, debate, public comment, and most importantly, real momentum for a bill’s passage, generally serve none of these necessary functions in New York.

Far from encouraging compromises to address New York’s problems, the current rules in each chamber reward partisan loyalty to leadership and discourage open debate and deliberations across party lines.

Indeed, the present rules encourage members to leave the task of casting their votes to their leaders in each chamber - not to mention debating or negotiating legislation with colleagues - rather than participating in the legislative process from beginning to end to ensure that disagreements on legislation are resolved.

Fortunately, things may be about to improve, if voters make their voices heard. Earlier this year, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law issued a report that documented in detail the systemic problems with New York’s legislative process, and offered a blueprint for reform.

Editorial boards, chambers of commerce, civic organizations and voters from across the state have embraced that blueprint.

In September, Assembly member Scott Stringer, along with 16 other majority members of the Assembly, introduced two resolutions to change the rules of the Assembly. The proposed rule changes mirror many of the Brennan Center’s most important recommendations and will increase the effectiveness, deliberations, transparency and member participation in the Assembly’s legislative process.

Specifically, they give legislators more opportunities to argue on behalf of their constituents and give the public more of a chance to hold their legislators accountable for Albany’s failures. The Stringer resolutions would:

Give each committee the power to hire and fire its own staff. Currently, that authority resides with the speaker.

Require public hearings on legislation or agencies if one-fourth of the committee demands such a hearing, and require committee reports on all bills reported to the floor.

End the practice of “empty-seat voting,” where the leadership casts votes on behalf of members who are not even on the floor.

Enable members to force hearings and votes on bills that are bottled up in committee.

Limit the use of “messages of necessity” in order to prevent legislators from20voting on midnight budgets and other bills without even reading them.

Forbid the speaker from punishing members by taking away their office staff or supplies.

Make it easier for sponsors of legislation to convene conference committees to resolve differences between the Assembly and Senate and produce a final bill that everyone can live with.

These reforms will not change Albany overnight. But if passed, they will begin to end the do-nothing ways of Albany: Simply introducing a bill, only to let it die, will no longer do. Failing to show up for votes and ceding responsibility to others will have repercussions.

And for Assembly members who have been frustrated by the ability of a few powerful legislators to stifle needed change, the Stringer resolutions provide the power to make sure their ideas and bills get heard and voted upon by the full chamber.

When rank-and-file Assembly members and senators become more engaged, the voice of the public will be heard more loudly. The result will be greater accountability and better lawmaking.

Because these rule changes do not, for the most part, require approval from the Senate or governor, there is a very good chance they can be passed - even in Albany.

The September primaries sent a wake-up call to all legislators that voters were finally focusing and voting on reform. Since their introduction, the Stringer resolutions have been embraced by many more Assembly members,20as well as many of the state’s leading business and civic organizations.

To produce reform, voters must let their representatives know that they should support these rules changes. In practical terms, that means two things:

First, make sure your Assembly member and the Assembly’s leadership hear your voice loud and clear. Let them know that this issue is important to you, your community and the future of the state. Something as small as a telephone call, letter or e-mail - or as big as a town hall meeting or public rally - can make the difference.

Second, let everyone know that watered-down versions of these proposals are not acceptable. The Brennan Center’s recommendations represent a careful selection of reform changes that make sense. The Stringer resolutions further winnowed these proposals to create a politically viable proposal that will reform the Assembly, not turn it upside down. We must accept nothing less than what is already on the table.

Passage of the Stringer resolutions offers the promise for even greater changes. It should put tremendous pressure on the Senate to adopt similar changes. And the enactment of the resolutions themselves should make it easier to pass broader, more sweeping reforms like taking the power to draw legislative district lines out of the hands of the politicians and passing real campaign finance reform.

There has been a groundswell of support for change in Albany this year.

Let’s not let that unprecedented momentum go to waste.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jeremy Creelan is associate counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the lead author of ”The New York State Legislative Process: An Evaluation and Blueprint for Reform” issued in July. Lawrence D. Norden is an attorney and volunteer at the Brennan Center.