This is an excellent article and it’s on the cover of ArtVoice.
People think I’m off base, read to much and listen to the voices in my head to much… Well if this guy is right, then so are them darn voices in my head.
Three Men in a Room is both edifying and horrifying: Lachman’s privileged perspective on New York’s legislative practices is essential reading for would-be reformers, who will find the book confirms all of their worst fears. Combining personal anecdotes, historical background and a dismaying collection of statistics, Lachman makes the case for a sweeping revision of the way state government does business, by means no less dramatic than a state constitutional convention. His account also explains why, after four successful re-election bids, he resigned his seat in disgust in 2004. He had first won the seat in a 1996 special election. What he found in Albany was a legislature whose members had little or no say in crafting legislation; whose members traded obedience to their party and house leaders for perquisites, pork-barrel projects and easy re-election; which was in the sway of powerful, largely unregulated lobbyists; and which routinely failed to accomplish anything of substance, even its most basic responsibility to pass an annual budget on time.
In short, he found a government that was controlled almost entirely by three men in a room, who run New York State with little accountability to most New Yorkers. A government, Lachman notes in the book, which in 2002 managed to pass only 4.4 percent of the 16,892 bills legislators introduced—the lowest achievement record of any statehouse in the country.
“Over time I grew surprised, distressed, and finally repelled,†he writes, “by the routine subversion of democratic values and processes in a state that was once America’s most progressive and activist, a trailblazer in many aspects of economic development, the nurturing of a middle class, workers’ rights, public education, public health and poverty relief.â€
Long but this should be a wake up call for everyone….
2 users commented in " Albany - Three Men in a Room - Cover story "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackVoters have to start judging legislators with more than one criteria. Pork makes good press and is appropriate in many instances, but we have to assess how officials work within coalitions in Albany, their rate of effective bill creation and sponsorship, etc.
Don’t worry Rus, them voices in your head are telling the truth. It’s everybody else that is crazy for sure.
Matthew, pork is never appropriate, and I think judging legislators by their rate of repeal is the way too go. There are way too many damn bad laws in this state, we need less of them, not more.
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