Albany Reform

Albany Reform

• Three Men In A Room Minus Two Equals 212 to 1 - (3-2 = 212>1)- Having offered the Governor a cool glass of lemonade (i.e., “Rules Reform”) to slake his thirst for something – anything – other than “Travelgate,” “Spitzergate,” “Planegate” or whatever other clever “gate” the media can concoct in our post–Watergate era, it was pointed out that there might be something missing – i.e., “sweetener”. Well, sweetener in the sense of – “What’s in it for Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver?” What interest do they have in disarming? How does it serve them? And, how does weakening themselves and purportedly strengthening the governor help them? How does it play out? Basically – what’s their motivation? To begin – both Senator Bruno and Speaker Silver admit that the Legislature needs to do something to restore the public’s confidence in institution. It is one of the reasons they passed rules changes in 2005 and 2007. After the ’07 changes Joe Bruno stated that, “these reforms are the first step, not the last, in our overall government reform effort.” Not to beat a dead horse, but read the City Bar’s report - http://www.nycbar.org/pdf/report/Committee_on_State_Affairs.pdf .
• It's Official - The Governor Doesn't Get It- Any hope that the Governor was adjusting his game plan in the wake of “Travelgate” is now officially over. It appears that weeks of pleading and prodding have had no discernable effect in light of his recent speech at the Chautauqua Institution on Tuesday. Specifically, the Governor expressed his continued adherence to the belief that force is his only weapon against the Albany establishment. While acknowledging that passion had gotten the best of his administration in recent weeks, the Governor asserted that, “only when we are willing to confront power with power can we even begin to address the injustices of our time.” (NYT – Metro – B2 – 8/8/07) This type of rhetoric and attitude was great when he was the so-called sheriff of Wall Street. However, times and circumstances have dramatically changed. He no longer has a badge and gun (figuratively). That is, he is no longer the Attorney General (a.k.a. – chief law enforcement officer) of New York.
• How to read the news - Joe Bruno edition- Nothing like a bit of an existential threat to focus republican legislators on that most foreign of concepts, work. Witness this article in Business Review.

  The man who once called Amtrak's intercity passenger rail service "embarrassing as hell" was delighted on Wednesday to unveil the first initiatives toward bringing high-speed rail to the state. Joseph Bruno, the state Senate's Majority Leader, announced $22 million in projects that bring the state closer to that goal. Half of that money will go to the Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station to add a fourth train track, extend platforms and demolish an existing building.

  Hooray, high-speed rail! No downside to this, right? Wrong. Buried in the body of the story is the actual lede, which is:

  All the projects spawn from a $5 million study several years ago on the possibility of creating a high-speed rail corridor between Buffalo and New York City.

  In short, the story really should read: "Kicking and screaming after years of footdragging and delay, Joe Bruno finally does something that could have been done several years ago."
• Albany's Intern Auctions- If you thought you were incapable of being shocked anymore by the ongoing scandal that is your state legislature, it's time to rethink that. Here's the scenario. Your young daughter applies for, and gets, an internship opportunity at the state Capitol. A great opportunity, obviously, and one that many young people across the state vie for, putting effort into the requisite qualifiers: good grades, public service, community volunteer work. Once in Albany, until 2004, this is what happened to your daughter: she, along with all other female interns, was herded into a newsstand in the Capitol, where legislators would pick and choose their staff based on attractiveness, not résumé. There's a name for that: an auction. Digby:

  However, this truly is beyond the pale and should be a matter for investigation. If politicians who corralled a bunch of women into a newsstand to be chosen for jobs in legislators' offices based on their sexual attractiveness to the disgusting pigs they were going to work for are still in office today, they should be exposed. That's not consensual behavior, that's sex discrimination. This practice apparently went on until 2004, and there's no excuse for it.

  This is the natural and unavoidable consequence of the Albany system of legislators who draw their own district lines and who are more likely to die in office than to lose an election: they prey on your children, because they know that you can't do anything about it. And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, because you're just going to keep on voting these people back into power. Given the glacial turnover in Albany, the people who bid on your daughter based on her fuckability - your teenage daughter - are all still in office.
• Shelly Silver kills congestion pricing dead- Alright, so everyone who hasn't been asleep for the last forty years must have seen this one coming: Sheldon Silver, Democrat of Manhattan, Speaker of the Assembly, refused to allow the State Assembly an up-or-down vote on congestion pricing. The New York Times:

  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s far-reaching plan to ease traffic in Manhattan died here on Monday in a closed conference room on the third floor of the Capitol. Democratic members of the State Assembly held one final meeting to debate the merits of Mr. Bloomberg’s plan and found overwhelming and persistent opposition. The plan would have charged drivers $8 to enter a congestion zone in Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak hours. Mr. Bloomberg and his supporters, including civic, labor and environmental organizations, viewed the proposal as a bold and essential step to help manage the city’s inexorable growth.

  Now, here's where it gets interesting. If the proposal didn't have the necessary votes, it could have been let to the floor and died there. Sheldon Silver didn't allow it to a vote - in the Stalinist system of Albany, only the leaders of the respective chambers, not individual legislators, in practical terms have the ability to bring legislation to a vote - because he did not want it to pass. And there is no district in all of New York that would have benefited more from congestion pricing than Mr. Silver's own. In normal years, residents of Silver's 62nd AD really don't have much in the way of leverage over their too-powerful Assemblyman, which is why Silver has completely escaped accountability in his marbled office in Albany. This time, however, things are different: there's a primary challenger, Paul Newell. If the powerless voters in the 62nd Assembly District want to have a representative for their interests in Albany, this year, they have a choice.