How ARRC Could Help Save New York State Government

by: BingChester

Thu Feb 17, 2011 at 17:43:08 PM EST

One unique opportunity I've recently discovered is the Administrative Regulations Review Commission, or ARRC.  I first heard about ARRC when David Carlucci was named as the Senate co-chair of the commission.  I had never heard about this commission until that day and I started researching what the heck it was.  ARRC came up again this past week when Assemblyman Chuck Lavine (a good, reform-oriented Democrat from Nassau County for those who haven't heard of him) was appointed co-chair from the Assembly.

So what the heck is ARRC and why am I optimistic about it?  Follow me over the fold to find out.
 

State Assembly passes gay marriage bill

by: Michael Bouldin

Wed Jun 20, 2007 at 08:45:52 AM EDT

We must conclude that Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws. Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Colorado is affirmed.

Since Romer, the LGBT rights movement has been able to focus, the fight over whether we have any rights before the law having been won, on what the scope of those rights will be. In essence, this has involved identifying and then advocating for change in all aeras of the civil law where sexual orientation is relevant; chief among these is marriage. Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to include gays and lesbians in the protections of law already extended to straight New Yorkers.

After more than three hours of impassioned debate, the Assembly on Tuesday night approved a bill to allow same-sex marriage in New York.[...]

"I'm very proud of my colleagues," said a buoyant Daniel O'Donnell, D-Manhattan, an openly gay lawmaker who carried the bill on behalf of Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The bill passed 85-61, more than he'd expected.

(Xpost @ TDG)

So the Assembly wants a raise...

by: Michael Bouldin

Mon May 07, 2007 at 13:28:31 PM EDT

ALBANY - Speaker Sheldon Silver and fellow Assembly Democrats quietly introduced legislation late last month that would grant lawmakers a raise of nearly 21 percent, increasing their base pay to the second highest in the nation among state legislators.

No, this was not announced in a press release.

Of course not.

At the urging of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, also a Democrat, Mr. Silver agreed to hold off on the legislation for the moment, pending the outcome of a fight between the governor and Senate Republicans over campaign finance reform.

(Cross-posted from The Daily Gotham)

More Brodsky Follies

by: Michael Bouldin

Thu Mar 08, 2007 at 14:10:24 PM EST

Take, for example, this short paragraph:

This country is a beacon of liberty not because of steamrolling chief executives, but because of legislatures that limit their power. Reform in Albany requires a credible, independent and active Legislature that can challenge the governor, improve or stop his proposals and protect the system of checks and balances that define a democracy.

...and contrast it with this from the Brennan Center blog (the folks at the Brennan Center are the ones who describe Mr. Brodsky's beacon of liberty as the most dysfunctional legislature in America):

Unfortunately, it seems that the Assembly Majority is not committed to creating a more responsive, deliberative, accessible, accountable, and efficient legislative process. Members may boo when the Assembly is called dysfunctional, but it's hard to see how the epithet isn't still deserved.

(Cross-posted at The Daily Gotham)

No, Assemblyman, you're missing the point

by: Michael Bouldin

Tue Mar 06, 2007 at 09:44:04 AM EST

The piece in question is by Richard Brodsky, Assemblyman of Westchester, who has been leading a lonely fight to restore some measure of respect to the legislature after the DiNapoli meltdown. Brodsky, of course, was one of the supporters of his colleague, blissfully unaware of the 69% mandate for change given to Governor Spitzer, the disgust of ordinary New Yorkers for business as usual, and contemptuous of the binding agreement worked out between the new governor and the old Assembly about the procedure of picking a new Comptroller. This piece is the latest in a series of apologias by Brodsky, who seeks to defend the legislature against accusations of being "dysfunctional," "corrupt" and "ineffective". Brodsky seems to think it's just a P.R. problem. It's not. It's systemic.

Let me just vivisect one paragraph, in the hope that others will do more:

In fact, the Legislature's record is a good one. A lot depends on how you measure success. A successful legislature will do three things well: pass laws; provide ordinary people access to power and enable them to influence decisions; and, most important, check abuse of executive power.

That is, with all due respect, self-serving bullshit. Read on.

(Cross-posted at The Daily Gotham)

Here, Assemblyman, have a cookie

by: Michael Bouldin

Fri Feb 09, 2007 at 11:40:01 AM EST

Legislators are well qualified to be comptrollers, said Assemblyman Charles D. Lavine, a Nassau County Democrat who ran for office last year on a fix-Albany platform. "After all," he said, "we've been good enough to be Congressional representatives, senators and even presidents of the United States."

Not to be gratuitously unkind, but these promotions happened in a long-vanished time when the legislature was not a staple of late-night comedy. Sir.

"I'm very proud of the Assembly, Democrats and Republicans," Anthony S. Seminerio, a Queens Democrat, said on Tuesday. "We come from all walks of life, but in our own way, we have an intelligentsia. We have a system for solving problems. No one comes in knowing everything."

It's awfully tempting to read that as 'In our own special way, we're plenty smart'.