A new Senate?

Early this morning at the Capitol, I joined my Democratic and Republican colleagues to enact far-reaching legislative reforms that fundamentally change the way the Senate does business.

These reforms take power away from legislative leaders and empower individual legislators from every region.  We've acted to open up the legislative process to greater public scrutiny, accountability, bipartisanship, cooperative action, effectiveness, and more reform than we've ever had in Albany.

The most important bottom line for me is this: it's very positive for the upstate region.  These reforms will go a long toward laying the foundation for our fair representation in New York government.

Is it a new day in the Senate?  One good government advocate put it this way earlier today, "They need to keep working on this, it's a work in progress. But I don't want to undercut the fact they have made substantial improvements."

I agree.  There's a long way to go and we need to keep breaking new ground in the arena of reform, but what we've achieved here today is very positive and will make a difference.  Now we get back to work, and we keep moving forward.