| I recommend a blue-ribbon panel be created with the (paid) job of going through all of New York's consolidated laws.
I suggest that the panel consist of 17 members, 4 each from the majority and minority parties of each house of the legislature, and the chair -- someone who is considered to be above partisanship -- picked by the other sixteen members.
The panel would have the power to decide how it will divide the job among its members, how those members will work together, and how often (and where) the entire panel would meet. The panel's pay scale would be set by the law that creates it.
The panel would make recommendations for changes to current laws. Where the meaning of a section of law is unclear, the panel should make multiple recommendations, so that each potential interpretation is covered.
The panel would be charged with reporting to the governor and the legislature after six months; that report should give a timeline for completion of the project. Upon receipt of the final report, the legislature should be required to go into session in mid-September for the purpose of legislating the recommendations of the panel. Under this plan, the legislature would not be allowed to adjourn until all the recommendations have been acted upon -- in each section covered by the panel's report, either the law would be modified or a vote would be taken to leave the law as it is.
This could take years, but the end result will be a clean set of consolidated laws. It is a long-overdue reform. |
