On Monday, state leaders emerged from hiding (perhaps lounging in Dick Cheney's famous 'undisclosed location') to announce $131.8 billion budget. The budget resulted from the infamous 'three men in a room' process that was so often denounced by both Gov. David Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, when both were minority leaders in the Senate -- the proverbial fourth man.
"If the Legislature can maintain this type of fiscal discipline over the next few years, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel." explained the governor, which seems an Orwellian way to describe a budget that increases spending by 8.7 percent. The current budget is double the size of the budget of only 12 years ago, according to The Times-Union.
Gov. Paterson and Sen. Smith each apologized for the secretive process that resulted in the budget and wished things could have been done differently.
The reputation of both Democrats, both of whom, it could be argued, backed into their positions, has been seriously tarnished by an increasing public perception of incompetence and ineffectual leadership. The fact that two of the three men in a room 'wished' the secretive process could have been different but were too weak to make it happen hardly inspires confidence in either of them, in their ability to take tough decisions or in the budget they helped produce.
Secrecy is the enemy of democracy. So it's no surprise that this is how Albany continues to be run. But as usual, the public is the big loser here.
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