In apparently some disbelief, the LA Times reports today, in a story headlined "N.Y. Legislature Seen as Rife With Problems: A study labels the state's system the nation's most dysfunctional -- worse than California's," that:
NEW YORK — The California Legislature — the domain of "girlie men," according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — doesn't come close to matching the assessment of its East Coast counterpart in a new study. The legislative process in New York state has been labeled the most dysfunctional in the nation.Read the report for yourself. Here is the press release of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, which put out the report. And here is a direct link to the 108-page report itself: THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM. Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 25, 2004 04:24 PMIn a scathing report, a research and advocacy group said that fewer than 1% of the key bills passed by lawmakers from 1997 through 2001 were the subject of public hearings and that fewer than one in 20 were debated on the floors of the state Senate or Assembly.
Making the process even more opaque, the report said, New York has the only state legislature that routinely allows empty-seat voting, in which the votes of absent representatives are automatically counted as favoring a bill's passage.
Adding to the limitations on the public's ability to participate, the group said, Democrats and Republicans routinely discussed bills behind closed doors without any transcript or public record.