Newsday: "No Light Shining Here"

Albany leaders think they don't need to be open about budget negotiations

March 18, 2009

 
Two years after passing an open-government reform bill, Albany leaders are dealing as deeply in closed rooms as ever.

State lawmakers agreed in 2007 to hold open conference-committee meetings to reconcile different budgets put forth by the governor and each of the two houses. Now, leaders say that because they are all working from the governor's budget - and because they are philosophically aligned Democrats - such open talks aren't needed. It's a weak excuse and a stark warning that one-party government may not work.

Gov. David Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith both campaigned on reform. Now, they're leaving out not only the public but all the other lawmakers, except for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the third of the "three men in the room." With a closely divided Senate, 32-30, Republicans still represent nearly half the state and include some of the Senate's most senior members. Their expertise is needed. Imagine negotiating health-care cuts without Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) or higher education without Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson).

What's more, the three men hail from New York City, and so far, they haven't demonstrated sufficient sensitivity of Long Island's or other suburbs' issues. An example arose just yesterday, with the Senate Democrats' stopgap bailout proposal for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Their plan does away with city lawmakers' hated bridge tolls, but it doesn't adequately address the payroll tax that is riling businesses from Montauk to Tarrytown.