| There seems to be a rule in Albany that the loudest proponents of reform are those with the least effective power. In a new twist, though, that position seems currently held by Governor Paterson, who is now proposing a more thorough reform package than I've heard from anyone else so far:
While bills to create public financing have passed the Assembly many times, the expanded ethics oversight and term limits are expected to be a difficult sell in both houses of the Legislature, which has been slow to consider tougher ethics laws...
The legislation would effectively dismantle Albany's existing campaign finance system, in which corporations and labor unions deposit millions of dollars into central housekeeping accounts controlled by party leaders, who then use that money to finance individual candidates, making rank-and-file lawmakers dependent on the leaders.
Perhaps most controversially, Mr. Paterson will propose limiting statewide officials - the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and comptroller - to two four-year terms each, while members of the Legislature would be permitted six two-year terms. Such a change would require an amendment to the State Constitution.
Mr. Paterson is also including in his package a proposal he made last year to centralize ethics enforcement... The new commission would also have the legal authority to refer criminal and civil cases to the attorney general.
Why all this? Why now, after it seemed Paterson had moved such things to the back burner?
Mr. Paterson is pushing for the overhaul at a time when his efforts to guide New York through its worst fiscal crisis in generations have been thwarted by a powerful and well-financed alliance of state lawmakers, public employee unions and health care interests.
I'd be happy to see these proposals pass, even though I have serious doubts about term limits. I find the absence of proposals for better financial disclosure (or simply a full-time legislature, no moonlighting allowed) to be strange, though supposedly something's coming on that front.
Will it make a difference, even an incremental difference? It's hard to say. I suspect something will come out of it, but something seriously watered down. Paterson has more issues than just reform to deal with, and with everything likely in the same negotiating pot... well...
Good luck, Governor Paterson! (I haven't said that very often lately, but mean it here.) |
