Normally one views a state legislative session in terms of what constructive legislation is passed.  In better years, when the Three Men in a Room could agree, there were some accomplishments to report in substantive areas: the environment, education, ethics, and the elimination of injustices of various types (equity).  In worse years, when the Three Men detested each other, very little got through the triple filter, and conditions stayed pretty much as they were. The historic record was bad enough to give New York State the reputation of having the most dysfunctional legislature in the country, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

This year, the legislature has been substantially worse than in the past.. In 2008, with two of the Three Men being rookies, the triumvirate is seriously out of balance. There are fewer restraints to the passage of special interest legislation supported by substantial contributors to the campaigns of incumbent elected officials. The reform initiatives appear to have disappeared with Governor Spitzer. They were offered to the legislature by Governor Paterson when the session was about to adjourn.

Special interest legislation generally enhances the privileges of a small, or a large, group at the expense of the general public, due process or the site treasury. Such laws are the result of pressure, generally accompanied by money, which comes from the army of lobbyists who line the corridors of the Capitol. (That is figurative.)

The situation is worsened by the fact that two of the Three Men have political problems and are more vulnerable this year than in the past. The new Republican leader, Dean Skelos of Nassau County, is comparable to Senator Bruno, without Bruno's wit and charm. He is desperately trying to hold on to his tiny 32-30 majority in the state senate in the face of what may, or may not, be a Democratic landslide. Certainly at this point Senator Obama is far ahead of Senator McCain in New York State, and the issue is whether he can carry in enough Democrats running for open seats or opposing incumbent Republicans. The Democrats need two more seats to take power. They want that very much.

The last time the Republicans lost their majority of the state senate was in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater had a coat-tail effect in the state.  Democratic control lasted just one year, in 1965, in an election mandated by redistricting, the Republicans won back the senate and have held it ever since (43 years).

Senator Skelos is desperate for labor's support, or indeed for anyone's support, in his effort to stem the tide of history and demographics.  So he will pass bills which normally would die in the chamber which is supposed to be more fiscally responsible, and respectful of the powers of the state.

Speaker Sheldon Silver also has a problem - a primary for his own Assembly seat on the lower east side. His neighborhood is changing - the elderly Jews are dying off or moving to Florida, and his base in middle-income housing developments is being somewhat yuppified. When the Mitchell-Lama co-ops voted to go private, and cash in on the apartments they bought for five thousand and are now selling for a half million, who do you think was around to pay that much to live on the lower east side? As they have said for generations, there goes the neighborhood.

Silver is expected to defeat his primary rivals, especially if he has more than one. It takes work, however, in the heat of the summer, and money, which for him is ample.

Good politicians never neglect their base, whether it is their caucus or their district.

Governor Paterson, not up for election until 2010, is relatively free of immediate pressure from lobbyists. He can, if he wishes, stand up for the status quo. That used to be a bad thing, but when bills enacted by both houses would leave the state significantly worse off than it is today, the status quo becomes a preferred alternative to the vitiation of government.

Here are some of the products of the 2008 legislative session:

1. A bill mandating an independent outside hearing officer whenever a unionized employee faces dismissal passed the Assembly 126-15 and the Senate unanimously.   Under current law, all dismissals by a commissioner are subject to outside review, once by the city's Civil Service Commmission, and then by the judiciary, where three levels of courts have authority over these cases.

The so-called independent outside hearing officers are not exaactly independent. Arbitrators, for example, who have already replaced managers in numerous disciplinary situations, are chosen from pre-selected panels. The union has the right to exclude from a case anyone they don't like, which means people who may have ruled against them in other cases. Ergo, if you want to get along, go along.

Arbitrators also have a preference for deciding a case by splitting the baby in half, hoping to offend neither side sufficiently so they will not be blackballed from future arbitration assignments, for which they are well paid. Unions have longer memories than city officials who turn over with administrations, and who themselves rely on being tolerated by the unions in order to keep their jobs. 

Compromise may work in imposing a fine, or determining the length of a suspension.  However, when an employee has behaved in a manner so egregious that the agency concludes that he has forfeited his position of trust, either he will be fired or he will not be.  Any lesser penalty imposed by a compromising outsider will keep him on the agency payroll, where whatever harm he has done is likely to continue, and spread, since it will have been shown that a, again figurative, slap on the wrist is the worst outcome a wrongdoer can receive.

What this bill effectively means is that it will be virtually impossible to fire any city employee who is a union member, no matter how badly they may have performed their duties, or what wrongful acts they may have committed.  Similar bills were vetoed eight times by Republican George Pataki and Democrat Mario Cuomo because they strike at the heart of public officials' authority to manage their agencies.  This year it will be up to Governor Paterson to decide whether to sign the bill.

2. An unusual piece of legislation, similar to a bill of attainder, was adopted in order to allow the New York State Dental Society to eviscerate its Manhattan chapter.  The executive director of the State Society, one Roy E. Lasky, is paid a $292,000 salary, plus $140,000 for lobbying.  Both the State and the Manhattan organizations were chartered by the state in the 19th century.  The state group wants its charter amended so it can supersede the county group.  The state group, headed by the generous Roy and politically savvy Lasky, is getting its way from a pliant legislature. The whole story is told beautifully by Sam Roberts in two Times articles, which I recommend that you link to. It is better than a textbook on political science.

NYTimes, 6/23/08, IN RIFT AMONG DENTIST GROUPS, A TALE OF POLITICAL CLOUT

NYTimes, 6/26/08. BY LEGISLATIVE ACT, STATE DENTAL GROUP PREVAILS IN DISPUTE.

3. Another area of concern is the legislative micro-management of clearly local issues that should be decided by a city whose population exceeds eight million.

The City has, over the years, set aside certain lanes of traffic for use by buses at particular hours. This designation is made to speed travel by the forty or more people who may be riding a bus, rather than have the lanes blocked by automobiles carrying far fewer people (maybe one or two). The idea is eminently reasonable. In order to discourage car and taxi drivers from blocking bus lanes, the city wants to place enforcement cameras in front of buses to identify and ticket violators. This is like the cameras that have monitored busy intersections since 1993.

An unenforceable law is the equivalent of no law.  You can't afford to have police standing on every corner arguing with drivers to whom they give tickets.  If the summons is to be disputed, do it in court.  To install the cameras, the law requires permission from the state.  A slam dunk?  Absolutely not.

The bill was killed in the Assembly Transportation Committee, whose chairman, David Gantt, is from Rochester.  He had offered to allow cameras to be used in another situation, provided they had qualities obtainable only from a particular manufacturer.

Read Chad Marlow's column on the issue, published in Thursday's Daily News.  His article could be deemed seditious, but we read it as a cry for freedom from tyranny. The situation he describes is hard to believe, except that it is true.

The problem in Albany, however, goes far beyond any one individual, whether it is Silver, Paterson or Skelos, or any of their predecessors.   It involves excessive state power and limited city authority. The majority of municipal laws ordinances, except for statutes protecting city employees, can be superseded at any time by the Three Men in a Room.  The fact that the city is so much more significant to the country and to the world than the rest of the state does not relieve in any way the bondage in which it is held by its governmental parent.

One need not advocate the impossible dream of secession to seek a relationship of mutual respect between the city and the state. A Constitutional Convention would be a sensible occasion to rework the strictures which denigrate home rule, a basic principle of municipal government.

Like Father William, we have limited ourselves to three cases today. Be assured there are many others, some of which have not yet come to light.

Enjoy the weekend.