Progressive Democrat Issue 97: A PLAN FOR NY STATE

NY State government has been ranked as among the most disfunctional in the nation. Corruption is rife. Inefficiency is endemic. Often, nothing of any substance gets done. I hear frequently from Joan Millman (Assemby) and Marty Connor (State Senate) about how frustrating it is trying to actually accomplish anything in the dysfunctional, Pataki era of Albany. Things may be about to change.

Here in New York State we may not have taken the State Senate (more on THAT in a later issue) but we now have a strong Democratic Governor coming in coupled with a continuing Democratic majority in the Assembly. Reform is in the air as long as the Republican State Senate can be embarassed into doing the right thing. For my suggested plan for reform in Albany, I will defer to Michael Bouldin, my fellow contributing editor at Daily Gotham. Here is his diary on what should be done in Albany:

Since we're now entering an era of reform – "Day One, everything changes" – here are some things I'd like to see in Albany:

Reform now: Implement the full Brennan Center reforms. Three men in a room doesn't work and is an embarrassment to our state and our legislature. We're paying the price every day, via low citizen interest in the legislature, opaque legislative processes, wasteful pork-barrel spending, neutered legislators and an ongoing decline of vast reaches of the state. End it.

Non-partisan redistricting: Nationwide, the DLCC reports electing 275 new Democratic state legislators. In New York, we managed two, or maybe one and a half, depending on whether Spano manages to suppress enough votes to fend of Andrea Stewart-Cousins again. That would leave Janele Hyer-Spencer standing alone on the state's stage.

The gerrymandering and incumbency protection racket practiced by both Houses of the legislature is a disgrace to citizens. Republicans concerned about their senate majority might consider that redistricting could bring them gains as well as losses in the future. It's so simple that it's almost embarrassing to mention, but legislators worried about their re-election tend to be more responsive to the concerns of voters. The model to follow is Iowa's, which lets an independent, non-partisan commission draw districts. What we should not be doing is allowing legislators to select the people who will be voting for them by drawing their own districts; that turns the dynamic of them serving us on its head, quite literally.

Transparency: New York has about 800 or so public authorities, monstrous hybrid creatures equipped with the sovereign power of the state and the protections and autonomy afforded to private businesses. The public should be able to see simple and basic things like a real profit-and-loss statement for the MTA. We own them, and they need to be accountable to we the people.

Campaign finance reform: The donation limit for state races is an absurd $50,100. In New York, corporations can give money to candidates and committees. This system, together with the other manifold protections afforded incumbents, gives us a re-elect rate of close to 100%, and serves as an entirely legal enticement to bribery. The City's campaign finance model – matching small-dollar donations with public funds – works, and should be applied statewide; and as far as self-funding candidates are concerned, that loophole needs to be closed, too.

The upstate economy: one model that has vitalized moribund regions is the infrastructure fund of the European Union, which pumps Euros into struggling regions of Europe, and has created economic miracles in places as diverse as Ireland and Spain. What's needed today is a smarter and more contemporary version of the Erie Canal. Just to give one example, it makes little sense to give Goldman-Sachs a billion-dollar incentive to build in downtown (rather than midtown) while entire regions of the state wither.

Ground Zero: five years later, the pit is still there. Can we start taking this seriously for a change, instead of abusing the site for republican propaganda like the 2004 laying of a cornerstone for the Freedom Tower?

There's so much more to do after twelve years of do-nothing Pataki-ism. But it needs to be done.

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