New York will elect a new governor this year. The new chief executive will almost certainly face a divided legislature, with Democrats virtually guaranteed to keep control of the Assembly and Republicans likely to retain a narrow majority in the Senate. Incumbent legislators almost never lose thanks to legalized (bipartisan) gerrymandering.
Earlier this year, the legislature passed a one-time token rebate (rather than structural reform) to the school portion of New York's onerously high property taxes. Legislators made sure the sending of the checks were held off until election season. Very recently, the state Department of Taxation and Finance wasted a bunch of money by destroying some 200,000 of these rebate checks. Their flaw? The checks didn't give enough credit to the legislature and outgoing Gov. George Pataki.
Such blatant political opportunism might be excused if New York didn't have the most dysfunctional legislature in the nation.
With such a sclerotic legislature, good government groups are focused on lobbying the gubenatorial candidates for reform. With virtually no transparency, secret slush funds and legalized gerrymandering corrupting both parties in the legislature, these good government groups are the de facto opposition and agents of change in Albany.
One of these groups, the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), has issued a report detailing 50 ways the new governor can clean up the mess in Albany. The recommendations include making the governor's budget more transparent, a very critical independent redistricting commission, restrictions on executive branch employees' political party activities and the creation of an independent ethics commission.
Because the legislature is so dysfunction, NYPIRG focused on changes that could be implemented via executive order, explained the group's director Blair Horner.
Good government groups insist that these changes can happen in 100 days if the new governor's political will is there.
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