Times Union (Albany) - October 16, 2006

Legislature is Still Broken

By Jay Gallagher

Two of the "three men in a room" who run state government had similar but also significantly different reactions to a report last week that concluded that 's Legislature is "still broken."

Two years ago, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University issued a report calling the state's Legislature "the most dysfunctional" in the nation. Two years later, the center concluded, things have improved, but much more needs to be done.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican from Rensselaer County, said that he "welcomed" the center's observations and "will closely review them with an eye toward additional government reforms as we go forward so we can further improve accountability."

There was no "welcome" from Assembly Speaker , a New York City Democrat, who said parts of the report were "deeply flawed" and that the center didn't differentiate enough between the Senate and the Assembly, which he said has done more to reform its operations. In addition, he termed "deeply disappointing and seriously irresponsible" the report's failure to talk about how Republican Gov. didn't push reforms.

In other words, "Don't blame me," Silver seemed to say. Silver's problem with the governor will be gone in January when Pataki, the third man in the room during the notoriously private meetings, leaves office.

He will be replaced by either Democrat or Republican John Faso. Spitzer is way ahead in polls, and seeing how he and Silver interact will be closely watched in 2007. Spitzer and Faso both have pledged to be far more aggressive reformers than Pataki.

The Brennan Center's main beef with the Legislature is that Bruno and Silver still hold most of the reins of power in their houses, making trappings of democracy like committee meetings, floor debates and hearings mostly meaningless.

The report points out that neither the Assembly nor the Senate voted down a single bill that came to the floor in the last two years. This makes the passing and consideration of bills, in the eyes of the Brennan Center researchers and anybody else who pays attention to the Legislature, mostly an insider's game. That, of course, is why $144 million was spent on lobbying at the Capitol last year and why Bruno and Silver can raise millions in campaign donations to help keep themselves and their allies in power.

But Bruno and Silver point out that in the last two years the Legislature started to televise its sessions, made lobbyists working on state contracts report their activities and began to require that lawmakers be in their seats to vote on all bills (Assembly) and most important ones (Senate), among other steps.

And they point out that they stopped the embarrassing run of not adopting a budget on time for 20 years by passing spending packages before the April 1 deadline last year and this year.

However, critics note that the budget passed this year on March 31 was largely meaningless since Pataki wasn't on board. He vetoed much of it and the spending questions weren't resolved until long after the deadline.

And Senate Democrats point out that from their perspective the reform movement took a huge step backward when Bruno and the other Republicans decided that any proposals to change the Senate rules would have to go through the Rules Committee before being considered by the whole body.

That may sound perfectly rational to the outsider, but the reality is the Rules Committee rarely meets in public, essentially meaning that Bruno has his thumb on all rules issues.

The Senate and the Assembly have an easy way to show what their leaders say is their commitment to openness.

News organizations have sued the two leaders for refusing to disclose the names of legislators who sponsored grants known as "member items." They have released details on where the money - about $85 million for each house - goes, but not which member sponsored the award.

The leaders have said that the public is not entitled to know that.

The center doesn't deal with that issue in its report. But if the leaders want to show that the Legislature isn't "still broken," and they really are committed, as Bruno said last week, to making state government "more open, transparent and accountable," identifying members behind the member item grants would be a good place to start.