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.