Perestroika for New York

People with short memories may have forgotten that policy, implemented in the late 80s by then-General Secretary of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev. Under “perestroika” or, “restructuring”, a trickle of free market reforms were introduced to the stuck-in-neutral planned Soviet economy. Similar talk abounds today as to our great Empire State, including in this New York Times article on Authority reform efforts underway in Albany.

Those are only a few of the many examples of waste, fraud and mismanagement uncovered by legislators or the state comptroller in recent years, spurring occasional bouts of lawmaking designed to make public authorities more accountable. But they have remained inscrutable enough that even now, no one knows precisely how many are active at any given time.

Now Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the State Legislature are negotiating what could be the most significant overhaul of the authorities in years, perhaps ever.

The legislation being considered would impose sweeping financial disclosure requirements on the hundreds of local and state-level authorities and grant state officials new powers to monitor and enforce their compliance. It would also require public authorities’ board members, most of whom are appointed by the governor for fixed terms, to swear an oath to uphold fiduciary responsibilities similar to the ones assumed by directors of public corporations.

“Many authorities have become Soviet-style bureaucracies, cash cows and patronage mills for the political class and completely removed from control of democratic institutions,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who has been a voluble critic of public authorities.

Separately, Spitzer administration officials say that of the more than 700 authorities, they hope to consolidate or close as many as 200 superfluous or defunct ones. And they say Mr. Spitzer will appoint only highly qualified individuals to the authorities’ boards and executive ranks.

“At the end of the day, there will be authorities,” said Lloyd Constantine, a top adviser to Mr. Spitzer who is overseeing the administration’s efforts. “It’s not a question of whether we turn away from them. The intention is to tweak them so they better serve the public interest.”

You should read the whole thing. A huge part of what ails New York State is the unchecked power of our public authorities. Not for nothing M&T’s Bob Wilmers is running around likening upstate’s economy to that of Communist Eastern Europe.

HT NYCO