What they're really thinking

Jim at Amherst Times posted this the other day:

Process matters! The rules matter! Democratic principles generate superior legislation. When feedback from all of the citizenry enters the mix, creative synergistic solutions that balance the needs of the individual community, business, and environment emerge. Everyone wins. In contrast, when the process is rigged to further partisan power and lifetime incumbency, as it currently is in NYS, the legislation is neither creative nor synergistic, marginalizes large numbers of people, distorts free market signals, and generally harms our economy.

How bad is the problem? Speaker Silver represents one of the 150 state Assembly districts, yet earmarks for his district $7 million of the $50 million member item money available for all 150 districts. Silver takes 21 times his fair share. In addition, he uses the remaining $43 million to control the representatives in his party. The rules, which allow this behavior are inequitable, undemocratic, and an outrage!

The NYS Senate and Assembly’s implementation of the Brennan Center’s 2006 Update recommendations is essential to our citizens and state’s future!

Buffalo Watchdog thereafter inadvertently received this email from a NYS Senate e-mail address:

oh, boo hoo. What planet are these people living on? Whadda they want something like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Get in the real world.

I am hugely in favor of implementation of the Brennan Center recommendations, I think that perpetualized incumbency through gerrymandering is something that needs to be changed. I think that member item-style pork is something that ought to be tightly controlled if not abolished altogether.

I have emailed the author of that email to ask him or her some questions. It was written by one of two possible Senate staffers – neither of them works for any particular member, but for the Senate as a whole.

It’s refreshing in a way to get that sort of unfiltered candor from someone in power in Albany. We all know that’s how they think; it’s nice to see confirmation of that.

So, will the staffer email me back? I somehow doubt it. If he/she does, I’ll post something here.

In the meantime, go read and bookmark the Brennan Center’s own blog, ReformNY.

Know this: nothing will ever significantly change for the better until and unless there is reform in Albany.