THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

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xiv THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM with 3,899 staffers,” of any state legislature in the country. 5 Member Funding Used to Punish Disloyalty. Because the Speaker and Majority Leader can control each member’s funding for staff and office operations, members are discouraged from challenging their leader’s approach to specific legislation or to procedural rules. This reality prevents members from advocating for any changes to the procedural rules that could lessen the authority of the chambers’ leader, regardless of the merits of such changes. ■■ PROPOSED RULES CHANGES: ■ Each member shall be limited to introducing 20 bills in the Assembly and 30 bills in the Senate in each session. 6 ■ No member shall be assigned to more than three committees during a legislative session. ■ All members shall receive equal funding for the operating costs and staff of their individual offices, regardless of the member’s party affiliation or seniority. 1 ABNER J. MIKVA & ERIC LANE, LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 207 (2d ed. 2002). 2 Every year, the editors of McKinney’s Session Law News of New York identify and publish a list of those laws enacted in the prior year and determined to be “major legislation.” For the purposes of this study, we have analyzed the “major legislation” passed from 1997 through 2001. See MCKINNEY’S SESSION LAW NEWS OF NEW YORK (1997-2001). Although 310 laws were identified by McKinney’s, two of those laws (S70001 and S70002) were not listed in the Legislative Digest for the years in question. Accordingly, we did not include those two laws in our analysis of major legislation. 3 Professional legislatures (California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) are defined through an index of legislative professionalism presented in SARAH MCCALLY MOREHOUSE & MALCOLM E. JEWELL, STATE POLITICS, PARTIES, AND POLICY 212-13 (2d ed. 2003). The use of this cohort as a benchmark against which to assess the New York State Legislature was suggested to us by Gerald Benjamin, Reform in New York: The Budget, the Legislature, and the Governance Process (Background Document Prepared for a Citizens Budget Commission Conference, “Fixing New York State’s Fiscal Practices, Nov. 13-14, 2003), at http://cbcny.org/. See also Keith F. Hamm & Gary F. Moncreif, Legislative Politics in the States, in POLITICS IN THE AMERICAN STATES 157-58 (Virginia Gray & Russell L. Hanson eds., 8th ed. 2003). 4 N.Y. Const. Art. III, § 14 5 ROBERT WARD, NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT: WHAT IT DOES, HOW IT WORKS 108 (Rockefeller Institute Press 2002). 6 This limitation shall apply only to introductions as sole or prime sponsor, and shall not apply to: resolutions, floor amendments, or budget bills; emergency introductions at the request of the Governor; bills requested to be brought to the floor for "same as" bill consideration; departmental bills; or to "local bills" submitted through a member at the request of a county or municipal government.
THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM
Page 1: THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROC
Page 4 and 5: The Brennan Center for Justice at N
Page 7: CONTENTS Executive Summary. . . . .
Page 10 and 11: viii THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE
Page 12 and 13: x THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PR
Page 14 and 15: xii THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE
Page 19 and 20: INTRODUCTION It has become somethin
Page 21 and 22: ■ Accessibility. An accessible le
Page 23 and 24: NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROC
Page 25 and 26: ■■ REFERRAL OF LEGISLATION TO C
Page 27 and 28: legislation. As a result, the final
Page 29 and 30: ■■ COMMITTEE REPORTS Legislatur
Page 31 and 32: usually adopted by the full committ
Page 33 and 34: Neither of New York State’s two c
Page 35 and 36: FIGURE 5 RESTRICTIONS ON MOTIONS TO
Page 37 and 38: that is overturned; this allows the
Page 39 and 40: of these committees. 142 In 1971, a
Page 41 and 42: into, a bill because the committee
Page 43 and 44: Additional research is necessary to
Page 45 and 46: Finally, analysis of the outcomes o
Page 47 and 48: maybe 20 staff people saw it before
Page 49 and 50: Few other states rely so heavily up
Page 51 and 52: Both the fast roll call (also known
Page 53 and 54: that the leaders exert over which b
Page 55 and 56: Nor is this pattern a recent phenom
Page 57 and 58: A COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF NEW YORK
Page 59 and 60: State A COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF LEGI
Page 61 and 62: THE IMPACT OF NEW YORK’S DYSFUNCT
Page 67 and 68:
THE IMPACT OF NEW YORK’S DYSFUNCT
Page 69 and 70:
the people of New York State by acq
Page 71 and 72:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM The refo
Page 73 and 74:
■ Motions to discharge a bill may
Page 75 and 76:
ENDNOTES 1 See, e.g., Albany’s Ad
Page 77 and 78:
the New York State Legislature was
Page 79 and 80:
41 MAJOR LEGISLATION COMMITTEE ANAL
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Fin. Network, Inc., 830 A.2d 711, 7
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ers, the committee chair and majori
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90-day session and the 105th day of
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at 244, 547-48. 148 Aubrey Jewett,
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175 MAJOR LEGISLATION ANALYSIS 1997
Page 91 and 92:
210 S4422B passed the Senate on Jun
Page 93 and 94:
voted from 1997 through 2001 were a
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METHODOLOGY The research for this r
Page 97 and 98:
■ Vote Outcomes for All Bills 199
Page 99 and 100:
A9291-A, S6292-A S7833, A1103 A7162
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TELEPHONE SURVEY RESPONDENTS Alabam
Page 103 and 104:
Montana Legislative Services Divisi
Page 105 and 106:
BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE BOARD OF
Page 108:
BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE AT NYU S
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