“No one’s life, liberty or property are safe while the NYS legislature is in session,” Judge Gideon Tucker
With the signing of the Declaration of Independence the thirteen colonies became self governing states and each set about writing their own constitutions and governing structures The constitutions and structures varied widely from state to state.
New Hampshire has a 400 member lower house and a 24 member upper house, both paid $100 a year, The Texas legislature only meets in even numbered years, for 140 days from January to June and is paid $38,000 for the two year term.
The NYS legislatures, a 150 member Assembly and a 63 member Senate, meets annually between January and June, most weeks two or three days with Albany and local offices and paid $140,000 a year with outside income capped at $35,000, the highest in the nation. Governor Pataki in December 1998 called the legislature into an unusual session – two items, a charter school law and a raise in salary: guess what happened? Serving as a member of the legislature was considered a part time job until governors agreed to substantial increases – salaries have ballooned.
State constitutions are long and with frequent amendments, see 43 page NYS Constitution here
It does contain the sentence, “Public employee pensions shall not be diminished or impaired.”
The NYS legislative session begins in January with the governor’s state of the state message, laying out the goals of the governor. In late January the governor’s “preliminary budget” usually 150 or so pages, including non-budgetary issues. This year the governor placed a four year extension of mayoral control in her preliminary budget.
In early March each house releases its own budget and in March both houses and the governor begin the race to the March 31 deadline. If a budget is not agreed upon the legislatures must pass “continuing resolutions” extending the budgets one week at a time in order to keep the state afloat. This year the budget will be delayed due to the Passover/Easter break and lingering disagreements.
The overriding issue for public employees is “Fixing Tier Six,” impacting a few hundred thousand employees across the state. Thousands of teachers jammed Albany for a rally, other demonstrations across the state with a positive response from legislators, the governor, the key player has been, let us say, mildly positive. Fixing Tier Six means reducing the retirement age from 63 to 55, and determining the funding mechanism.
Legislatures are leadership driven, before every session a “conference” convenes members only to explore and debate the issues of the day, no minutes, and on the floor all members support the direction of the conference.
The leaders, Carl Heastie, the Speaker of the Assembly and Andrea Stewart Cousins, the Majority Leader of the Senate are the gatekeepers. The democrats have supermajorities in each house; however, the leadership, the committee chairs and the Speaker and Majority Leader decide which bills come to the floor,
About 20,000 bills are introduced over a two term, about 800 to 1,000 per year pass both houses, however the governor can allow bills to expire without signing or veto, other bills that have passed are further amended in order to gain the governor’s signature. Yes, lots of wheeling and dealing in the dark shadows. Once the legislature returns in mid April non-budgetary items move through the process with the last few days of the session, called “the big ugly” a few hundred bills pass with no debate, that’s how the Class Size Reduction bill became a law.
Unwieldy, behind closed door deals, lobbyists galore, “independent expenditures,” aka, “dark money” supports or oppose candidates, Bloomberg’s unheard of five million $ “independent expenditure” to Micah Lasher, a first term Assembly member running for Congress. Was Bloomberg “buying” a prospective member of Congress? You decide. “Buying” legislators is commonplace and disheartening, and as a result of the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, political contributors were ruled political speech and cannot be limited by statute.
The June primaries are three weeks after the adjournment.
Under decentralization (1970-2001) my district successfully lobbied in Albany, as the UFT District Rep I had a front row seat, and occasionally was just outside “the room where it happens.” The State funded a preK in every school, more than any district in the state. Today the CECs are largely absent from any actual authority, a few lobby the City Council for what is called Res B funds.
Mulgrew and UFT members have successfully placed Fixing Tier 6 at the top of the legislative agenda, there are opponents, school districts around the state will have to fund, the UFT and our allies have done an excellent job pointing out the age 63 retirement age increases teacher turnover and discourages attracting teacher candidates.
Will Tier 6 be folded into Tier 4, or a Tier 7? Have no idea, Judge Tucker might have been right.
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 