THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

maybe 20 staff people saw it before it arrived on our desk [and] it was like a Bible.
It was such a huge bill.” 189 The bill itself was 61 pages long. 190
Historical evidence indicates that the constitutional provision that created the
message of necessity has never really functioned as intended. As early as 1895,
the New York Times criticized the Legislature for allegedly abusing this measure in
order to rush a bill through. 191 An 1895 report by the Commission to
Recommend Changes in Methods of Legislation (appointed by the governor)
asserted that existing scheduling restrictions were insufficient and called for further
regulations, including a day calendar printed at least one day in advance and
limitations on the filing of private and local bills. 192 At the 1915 constitutional
convention, delegates proposed to eliminate the governor’s ability to waive
the three-day aging requirement with a message of necessity. Finding that from
1895 to 1915, 502 bills were passed using the message of necessity, “and it was
doubted whether one real emergency” could be found among them, the delegates
concluded that the governors “apparently had used this extraordinary power to
promote the convenience of the Legislature, to expedite party measures and to
prevent discussion in or out of the Legislature.” 193 The 1915 constitution proposed
by convention delegates was rejected by the voters. 194 Although abolition of
the message of necessity provision was proposed again in constitutional amendments
in 1916 and 1917, the proposed amendment never made it through the
legislative process to a popular vote. 195
Based on these persistent complaints, the 1938 constitutional convention
succeeded in revising the provision to require the governor to state not only that
it is necessary to vote on the bill more quickly, but also the reasons why. 196 The
delegates’ reasons for the change echoed the original aims of the provision: to
avoid a last-minute rush of bills and to allow legislators a chance to study bills
before voting on them. 197 In practice, a delegate acknowledged, the governor “has
a printed form in which he certifies to the necessity for the immediate passage.”
Requiring the governor to certify the reasons would not be likely to end the use
FIGURE 13
NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE
■ USE OF MESSAGES OF NECESSITY IN PASSAGE OF MAJOR LEGISLATION 1997-2001
NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 29
Message of Necessity Message of Necessity
for at Least for Both Senate
Message of Necessity Message of Necessity One Chamber’s Vote and Assembly Vote
Year Total Bills Passed for Assembly Vote Only for Senate Vote Only (% of Total Bills Passed) (% of Total Bills Passed)
1997 43 0 (0%) 1 (2.3%) 7 (16.3%) 6 (13.9%)
1998 60 1 (1.7%) 2 (3.3%) 19 (31.7%) 16 (26.7%)
1999 72 4 (5.6%) 3 (4.2%) 17 (23.6%) 10 (13.9%)
2000 82 1 (1.2%) 4 (4.9%) 29 (35.4%) 24 (29.7%)
2001 51 0 (0%) 6 (11.8%) 11 (21.6%) 5 (9.8%)
1997-2001 308 6 (1.9%) 16 (5.2%) 83 (26.9%) 61 (19.8%)