North Tonawanda, NY —There will be change in the New York state Senate situation soon. You read it here first.
How can I be so sure? It has nothing to do with threats to withhold their pay; certainly nothing to do with anyone in the state Senate having a conscience. What will break the logjam of kindergarten antics will be the growing realization that the work of the state Senate is largely irrelevant.
We talked a few weeks ago about the ATM machine of Albany politics being the inclusion of “sunset” language in most major legislation — language which would mandate that any idea passed by the legislature would expire, and probably at a time when there were fundraisers being held, thus allowing the legislators to reap campaign contributions from the same organizations over and over again. It’s a classic business model tactic to add recurring revenue from existing customers, and make no mistake; the customers of the state legislature are lobbyists.
The No. 1 pressing example of an expiring law was playing out in New York City and involved the city schools and education system. Flash back 10 years, and the New York City schools were a disaster. Test scores were beyond embarrassing, and patronage, financial waste and corruption were the rule of the day. Mayor Bloomberg fought for and won control of the education system and it has proven to be a smashing success. By nearly every measure the school system has been fixed through the power of mayoral accountability.
Of course, this is just one of the examples of a good idea needing the Legislature to renew it every so often. The law which transformed the test scores and education of kindergarten through 12th-grade students in New York City expired July 1 specifically because of Senate inaction. But Bloomberg proved smarter than all 62 state senators. He didn’t let them dictate terms to City Hall. Bloomberg worked a way around the expiration, empanelled the “old” board of education structure for one day and had them vote to give him the control he needed to keep helping the children of New York City get a decent education and keep the taxpayers from being exploited. It wasn’t a vicious power play; by all accounts friend and foe alike came together and are pleased with the result.
What Bloomberg did was prove that he can work with others — some of whom might not really like him all that much. He proved that he and others with opposing vested interests and bruising political styles can put aside any obstacle to ensure children had a shot at a solid education. Is there anything more important than education? The state Senate didn’t agree this week.
What Bloomberg didn’t do was cave in the face of a challenge. In doing so, he cast the first crack in the wall of invincibility of our state Legislature, and in particular, the state Senate. And this is why there will be change.
If innovative people like Bloomberg can roll up their sleeves and get the job done in spite of the barriers placed in front of him by state government, why then would we need to continually hand such power to the state? Maybe the legislature could be reduced in power and authority? Just maybe we could get the legislature out of people’s way and let innovative New Yorkers reinvent the 21st century like they dominated the past two centuries.
The point is, the state Senate meltdown — orchestrated by our own local politicians according to the media accounts and quotes from George Maziarz, Steve Pigeon and Tom Golisano — is really going to prove how little state politicians actually do each year. And if anyone finds out how little they actually do, there just might be moves to reduce their power and lower their profile. And we can all figure out that a lower profile means less lobby contributions and the end of million-dollar bank accounts in each of the upstate rural campaign offices.
Many people have compared the state Legislature to an organized criminal operation. These are actually the words of the assemblyman representing Jamestown, Bill Parment, and he’s in the majority party! If the legislature is akin to an organized crime family, then we can imagine what will happen next. There will be a sit-down of the bosses and they will have to agree: this mess is making us all look bad and someone has to pay the price. When there is a war on nobody makes any money. Someone will have to end the war. What happened in New York City this week is that the Legislature blinked; the public is seeing that the senators are weak.
The showdown between Bloomberg and the state Senate involved scared little children afraid for their future. That description isn’t of the students, but of the 62 state senators hiding in their offices in the state Capital.
Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. The Web site is www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via email at aim1986@mac.com.
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