http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm#support_dpc Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2004 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 House of Zilch ALBANY: TWICE AS BAD THIS YEAR Let us first define zilch. It means zero, nothing, nada, naught, zip. Do we mean that Gov. George Pataki and his legislative co-conspirators have not produced any legislation? Of course not. To cite just a few examples of high-level statecraft, they have permitted Lewis County to increase its sales tax, allowed the Lewiston Public Library to seek special district status, and extended the Niagara Wine Trail into the City of Niagara Falls. But on the big-ticket agenda items, such as passing a budget on time, finding a way to fund schools that would comply with a landmark court decision, and reforming the Rockefeller-era drug laws, the governor and the lawmakers have accomplished zilch. Now, both the Senate and the Assembly seem poised to leave Albany this week and return in early August. They shouldn't be skulking out of town now, with so many crucial items left undone. It is no great surprise that Albany failed to pass a budget before the new fiscal year began on April 1. That has been the case for 20 straight years. But now our state leaders have sunk to a new low, by showing that they can fail to live up to their responsibility on two gargantuan issues at the same time, the budget being No. 1. The second one is the result of a court ruling in a case brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of parents, community school boards and advocacy organizations. On June 26, 2003, the Court of Appeals ordered the state to fix its funding system to provide city school children with a sound, basic education. Technically, the CFE decision deals only with New York City schools. But when the state amends its funding system for the city schools, that will have a statewide impact. Because all the state's children deserve a sound, basic education, the school aid adjustment - amounting to billions of dollars more - should apply to underserved kids statewide, not just those in the city. The court gave the state until July 30 to come up with a plan. If the governor and the legislators can't agree on their own plan, the trial judge can appoint a special master (either one person or a panel of several) to impose one. Conflicting plans have been offered by the Republican governor, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Brunswick) and the Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan. Malfeasance on the Schools It would be the most unconscionable and craven election-year malfeasance if Albany punts and lets the court decide. That could delay for months the arrival of fiscal help for the schools. And the special master would have to focus only on New York City, which is bad for Long Island and upstate. While failing on these two issues, Albany has also struck out on a long list of other items that concern people in the city and Long Island. The unfair burden of Medicaid costs on the counties is just one example. But here's one thing lawmakers have accomplished: They have created a clear consensus across the state that Albany is more broken than ever. In a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, voters agree, by 67 to 25 percent, that state government needs fixing. In the same poll, 47 percent said the legislature is incapable of reforming itself. No wonder: Well over 50 percent said their own state legislators are handling the job just fine. That translates to unassailable incumbency, which is one of the key reasons why Albany remains so dysfunctional. Why should legislators reform anything, after all, when constituents repeatedly return them to office? In 2000, that smug presumption of invulnerability moved this editorial page to withhold endorsement from a number of long-time incumbent legislators. They thought they had the last laugh when they won re-election. Undaunted, we might do it again this year. But we have no illusions that it will be enough to generate meaningful change. Clearly, the voters are feeling some of that same frustration. The Quinnipiac poll has 52 percent favoring a constitutional convention to reform Albany. This page has been wary about constitutional conventions, because they can run amok, removing valuable protections from the state's constitution. Also, some of the same power brokers who now run Albany would be major figures at a convention. But if Albany remains an intractable mess, we may begin to view a constitutional convention not as potentially poisonous mystery meat, but as governmental chicken soup. (Couldn't hurt.) Term Limits Worth Considering One thing a convention might do is to set term limits for legislators. This page has opposed limits, but it's becoming ever more obvious that healthy turnover just can't emerge from a system that protects incumbency in so many ways. Meanwhile, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, angered by Albany's inaction on Medicaid relief for counties, wants to set term limits of his own by campaigning against incumbents. It may be brash, but it's also a sign of the general frustration. Those remedies are for another day. For now, the legislature must tend to business, starting with the budget and court-ordered school aid reform. Rocky's Drug Laws While they're at it, they must do something about the Rockefeller drug laws. The appointment of a Senate-Assembly conference committee on the issue was helpful, but the process broke down. So these harsh laws remain in effect, imprisoning people for crimes that involve small amounts of drugs, but not really solving the drug problem. The legislature had also appointed a conference committee to recommend reforms to the budget process, but those reforms are far from assured. The legislature must pick the best elements from the package, outlined in an earlier editorial, and get it done. It should also pass reforms that would place real controls on lobbyists who seek state contracts for their clients. Current law covers those who lobby for changes in laws and regulations, but not those who seek big-bucks contracts. Stealth lobbying must end. The Senate should pass a bill sponsored by Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck) that would require Long Island developers to make at least 10 percent of a new development affordable for working families. This is crucial legislation that the Assembly passed easily, and the Senate should follow suit. DiNapoli is also sponsoring a good bill to expand the beverage container deposit law. The new bottle bill would include bottles for noncarbonated beverages, such as water and juices. It would also require industry to turn over the unclaimed deposits to the state. The legislature also needs to fix the state's "vicarious liability" law, which makes banks and other financial institutions liable to lawsuits when cars they lease end up in crashes. This law is unique among the states, and its existence is causing some companies to stop leasing cars in New York. Still Undone On the long to-do list of actions that the legislature should take, these are just a few of the other worthwhile items: giving Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman full authority to audit the Nassau University Medical Center; continuing the New York City program that allows automated cameras to catch red-light violations at key intersections; starting a similar red-light program in Suffolk; implementing voting procedures under the federal Help America Vote Act; and restricting outdoor lighting at night, to save energy, improve privacy and promote amateur astronomy. With so much left to be done, both Pataki and the legislature deserve a resounding boo for turning the people's Capitol into the House of Zilch. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake