Chris Keeley

Reform NY Day 2008

1. New York State’s 2008 budget, prepared behind schedule and in shadowy circumstances has been described as a “throwback to Albany’s worst old days.”

2. The defeat of the City’s congestion pricing plan, endorsed and supported by DMI, was killed at the hands of one man operating behind closed doors. A man that has since been described to be, “unworthy of his office.”

We don’t have to look earlier than last week for these sad examples of dysfunction in Albany.

With a budget larded with money for pet projects – but no raises for judges - even a Jack Abramoff hard-liner would be impressed by Albany’s status as a “sanctuary city” for back-scratching favor-seekers. The sorry spectacle of secret budget negotiations and legislators voting on partial budget bills without any idea of the totality of the budget make it clear that the New York State legislature’s “reforms” in recent years have done little to change business-as-usual.

NYPIRG’s “Fat Cats” ranking of Albany lobbyists has come to reinforce what is well known and rarely denied that voices of everyday citizens have been drowned out by a handful of well-to-do special interests and their deluge of campaign cash.

It's become fortune cookie wisdom: Behind closed doors, democracy withers.

Yet, there are still New Yorkers who believe that it does not have to be this way. On April 29, though, citizen-activists from across the state will gather in Albany to tell our state’s many deeply-entrenched legislators that staying the current course of back-room deals and undemocratic operating procedures is not an option.

Ordinary New Yorkers want to tell the members of Albany’s status quo, “Enough is Enough!”

Enough of rules that concentrate Albany's power in the hands of only three men.

Enough of sham ethics investigations conducted by partisan boards.

Enough of campaign finance rules that allow incumbents to scare off high-quality, first-time candidates.

Enough of district lines drawn by the parties in power, with nothing in mind but the preservation of the power of incumbency.

Enough of campaign funds subsidizing the lives of elected officials.

On Reform Day 2008, ordinary New Yorkers will raise our voices to demand accountability from our elected representatives, transparency in the legislature’s processes, and a return to representative democracy in the State of New York.

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Posted at 7:00 AM, Apr 14, 2008 in Governmental Reform
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