ALBANY — Before he headed into a lame-duck session with the state Legislature this week, Gov. David Paterson was asked whether the inability of lawmakers to cut state spending was a sign of Albany’s dysfunction.
Well if it looks like a dysfunctional government, and it acts like a dysfunctional government, it may actually be one,” he said Tuesday.
“And that was before he held a 90-minute public session with legislative leaders that produced plenty of finger pointing, but no results.
To critics of the state Capitol, the failure of the state Legislature this week to curb state spending in the face of massive budget deficits is another disturbing sign of the state’s broken political system.
“I’ve been at this a long time, but I never thought I’d see the day that it’s become such a carnival,” said state Conservative Party chairman Michael Long, who has held the post for more than 20 years. “I don’t even think they know how to lead anymore.”
Long said endorsements from his party will likely be withheld from lawmakers who fail to act, saying “I think the Legislature, both sides of the aisle, disgraced themselves.”
Paterson is warning that the state likely faces a $2 billion budget gap before the current fiscal year ends March 31. He called an emergency legislative session Tuesday to cut spending, particularly in education and health care.
But he was unable to reach agreement with legislative leaders. So the state Legislature convened for just a few minutes Tuesday, and then went home.
Taxpayers will be on the hook for about $70,000 in travel expenses for the day for the lawmakers and their staffs to make the trip to Albany.
Long said they should pay the money back because “they didn’t do their job.”
Assemblyman Thomas Kirwan, R-Newburgh, Orange County, who lost his re-election bid this month, said Paterson should have forced legislators to stay to deal with the state’s financial problem. Lawmakers probably won’t address the state’s finances again until next year.
“I would be having my own version of a Chinese water torture,” Kirwan said. “I would have them come back every single day ... and force them to come up with some savings.”
Government experts said Tuesday’s display epitomizes the problems with state government: rank-and-file members have little say over the legislative process and are beholden to the majority leaders of the Senate and the Assembly.
So when the leaders don’t agree, or in this case refuse to negotiate, the remaining 210 lawmakers are handcuffed.
“Rather than seeing the leaders getting up and talking before the press, I’d like to see the hard work done on the legislative level,” said Larry Norden, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit group affiliated with New York University Law School.
In 2004, the center found that the state Legislature was the most dysfunctional in the nation, largely because its leaders exercise too much power and major issues are left unresolved.
Norden, who also edits the center’s “Reform NY” blog, said it appears little has changed in the four years.
“Instead of posturing,” he said, legislators should “actually (be) getting feedback and deliberating over public comment and expert testimony and debating it and getting something done.”
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, vowed Wednesday to change the legislative system when Democrats take control of the Senate in January. He said rank-and-file members will have a larger voice, Republicans and Democrats.
“They treat the minority a little differently,” Smith said of Senate Republicans. “They did not give us the amount of respect in the house that I will to the Republican conference in the minority. I will give them that kind of input and opportunity to be involved.”
