No Reform? No Raise!

by: phillip anderson

Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 11:44:07 AM EST

The New York state Legislature has the third highest pay in the nation - base pay of $79,500 for what is at best a part time job - and yet they are regarded by many as the most dysfunctional state legislature in the nation. It's true that state lawmakers haven't had a raise in 8 years, but then again, what exactly have they done to earn one? In our opinion, not all that much.

This hasn't stopped newly minted state Senate Minority Leader Smith from floating the idea of raising pay for legislators in the upcoming special session. To his credit, Smith has spoken of such a raise while at the same time speaking about passing badly needed reforms.

Reform first, we say. Now, we all know why Smith and others are interested in seeking a raise now in the special session. A sitting legislature can not raise its own pay. If they don't get it now, they'll have to wait another two years to see those paychecks get a little fatter.

Too bad. We are demanding that the legislature earn any new pay raise by passing reform measures FIRST.

We are calling bullshit on that.

We are asking that any pay increase be EARNED by passing three simple reforms, with hopefully more reforms to follow in the new year.

1. Following the lead of the Sunlight Foundation's brilliant "Punchclock Campaign", we insist that all New York state lawmakers publish their schedules online while the legislature is in session. They work for us, after all and we want to know what they are doing and who they are meeting with on our behalf.

Want a raise? Punch the damn clock just like the rest of us.

2. Independent non partisan redistricting. New York's redistricting process is a mess of insider baseball partisan protection of incumbents. It does not serve the public's interest nor the democratic process. It has created a legislature that is unresponsive, unaccountable and undemocratic. It serves only to perpetuate the status quo.

This is non negotiable.

3. Every piece of member item spending must a separate line item in the budget WITH THE SPONSORING LEGISLATOR'S NAME ATTACHED. Once again, why the hell should we even have to bring this up?

This is a no brainer and is also non-negotiable.

No reform? No Raise! Period.

What can you do to help? Contact your reps and first ask them if they support the proposed raise. If they do, then ask them if they think they should EARN that raise by passing these three reforms.

Then report back to us what you've learned about the attitudes of your reps and we will update our running tally of responses that we will be keeping on the front page of this site. We are looking to keep a list of all lawmakers in Albany and where they stand on this much like Josh Marshall did at TPM during last year's attempt to privatize Social Security.

Don't know who your Assembly or Senator is? Easy. You can find your Assembly critter right here and your Senator over here. Both those sites are searchable by Zip Code and are as easy peasy.

The send your results (plus any juicy commentary about your experience) to contact (at) thealbanyproject (dot) com and we'll update the list with your results!

Second, write a letter to the editor of your local paper insisting that New York lawmakers EARN a pay increase by passing these simple and badly needed reforms. If your letter gets published, let us know and we'll re-publish it here.

Reform first, we say.

No Reform/No Raise!

No Reform/No Raise!

No Reform/No Raise!

UPDATE I have been informed that the language of bills in both houses is indeed available for public review before passage therefore negating the need for demanding what we apparently already have. Shows what I know. I have updated the post in accordance with that knowledge.

My bad.