It isn't sexy, but we've been pushing procedural reform, particularly in the State Legislature, for a long time now. The Plattsburgh Press Republican interviewed Elliot Spitzer the other day, and was left with the impression that this was something the Attorney General wants New Yorkers to know he cares about too:
Making the people of New York realize that procedural change is crucial to the smooth functioning of state government will compel them to insist on reform. They will not tolerate, for example, the notorious "three men in a room" dictating the pace and quality of budget creation that has yielded so much inertia for two decades. They will not tolerate the swelling of Medicaid costs, generally passed along to local taxpayers. Nor will they tolerate lobbyists having predominance over good public policy and a committee system run awry.
But, he was asked, could he see himself, as governor, standing nose to nose with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, two veterans of the system in which those practices were not just accepted but hailed, and telling them it must be dismantled?
"Yes," he answered unflinchingly, as if to think otherwise would be folly.
Hat tip: UpstateBlog
Categories: General, Rules Reform
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