It can be summed up in one word: dysfunctional. But where does this dysfunction come from? Why can’t Albany get it’s act together? Good question.
John Fund, writing in the Wall Street Journal, provides a pretty decent run down on the shananigans in Albany. Will there be reform? That’s anybody’s guess, but perhaps we have taken a step in the right direction.
Even so-called reformers are part of the problem. The state’s constitution requires that every 20 years voters be given the chance to vote on whether to convene a constitutional convention to inject fresh ideas into the process. The last time the issue came up, in 1997, most reform groups were either neutral or against the idea of a convention.
Francis Barry, a policy adviser to New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, explains why in his new book, “The Scandal of Reform”: “The most serious problem for good government groups was not that a convention might be run by elected officials but that it might be run by the wrong elected officials: Republicans.”
In the end, a new convention was rejected by voters by a wide margin. Dysfunction-as-usual continued.
Enter Tom Golisano, a populist, an upstate billionaire, and a three-time independent candidate for governor. Last year, Mr. Golisano grew upset with the feckless GOP majority in the Senate and poured $5 million into the coffers of Democratic challengers, who won enough seats to end the GOP’s 40-year control of that body.
But Mr. Golisano ended up with buyer’s remorse when the new Senate Democratic majority refused to pass rules that would have made the budget process more transparent. The final straw came in April, when Democrats pushed through a budget that hiked spending and raised state income taxes to a height not seen in the state since the 1960s (the top marginal income tax rate is now 9%, up from 6.85%).
“It was irresponsible, since the top 1% of earners account for about half of state revenue,” Mr. Golisano told me. “We’re the ones who can — and will — leave.”
He should know. He’s already gone.
Albany is small potatoes when it comes to Washington, DC. If only our national leaders would look at the mistakes made by states like California, Oregon and New York and learn a lesson. Instead, they’re just repeating them on a larger scale.
