Right Idea, Wrong Man

Albany is a wretched mess and everyone knows it. Legislators are failing to take care of the public's business thanks to a dysfunctional system that fosters corruption and subsequently a few of those corrupted legislators made a power grab that shut down the government. While most of us would love to see a power sharing agreement where both sides kiss and make up something equitable, the reality is that our leaders are a bunch of petulant children who would rather strut their stuff than get anything substantive done. Even the stuff that got done yesterday is all for nothing.

The question though is what to do about it. Beneath the chaos of the moment, there are so many problems with how the institutions of our state work that there is no realistic way for them to work with the benefit of the people in mind. What we need is to re-write the rules so that government works for us, but the man that is talking about these comprehensive reforms should not be allowed anywhere near the process.

From The Daily Politics:

The former mayor’s plan, outlined in an OpEd in the New York Times, calls for a constitutional convention that would, among other hot button proposals, impose term limits on all Assembly and Senate members, as well as all statewide elected offices.

In addition, Giuliani said he would push to empower the governor to set revenue estimates on his own; change the deeply partisan way in which state lawmakers draw electoral districts; toughen campaign finance laws; make it harder for legislators to boost taxes; and establish clearer lines of succession for the LG's office, which has remained vacant since last March when Gov. David Paterson took over for the scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer.

The article talks more about Rudy running for governor more than the actual reforms, so it should be noted that this he is probably talking about these issues out of his own self-interest and not for the good of the state. For the eight years he was mayor, Giuliani could have cared less for the well-being of our city's governmental institutions. Considering the myth of Rudy versus the reality of his tenure, his call for reforming Albany should put actual reformers on red alert.

Of course a constitutional convention should still be something to be seriously examined. If legislators can be shamed into voting for such a measure, the process should be handled by a bi-partisan committee, preferably by good, upstanding individuals who preferably have no personal interests or dealings within the state of New York. Who those people are, well that is up for debate.