Lawmakers fill their days with everything but action on the state's most pressing business.
The New York State Senate was in session at the State Capitol Building in Albany on Tuesday. They voted to confirm the nomination of Dennis Mullen as chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. State lawmakers have been working three days a week, considering bills about transfats and honoring Girl Scouts, but the state budget is 44 days late.
Albany —Strolling through the state Capitol, you wouldn’t know that New York’s budget is 44 days late. Or that the state is $9.2 billion in debt. Or that the governor is being sued by workers’ unions, and the entire Legislature is walking on eggshells because of November’s elections.
Legislators pass the time in committee meetings discussing such topics as sun tanning and idling trucks. They send text messages and check e-mails while their colleagues speak about bills. They leave hearings to take phone calls and don’t return.
Rank-and-file legislators are not fixing the budget. They’re not sure if anyone is fixing the budget. Maybe no one is.
So legislators do routine work and grow more frustrated with their insignificance. At times, it bubbles over.
LISTENING: Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, takes in the scene last week during a Finance Committee meeting on the nomination of Dennis Mullen to be chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. On the Senate floor last week, Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, a lawyer by trade, subjected Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, to a courtroom style cross-examination. While asking pointed questions about the late budget, DeFrancisco looked directly at Kruger instead of at Sen. Craig Johnson, who was presiding over session.
Three times Johnson warned DeFrancisco to look toward the front of the chamber, as is the custom. DeFrancisco continued to look at Kruger and pressed on, accusing Democrats of “flitting away from Albany” to attend fundraisers.
Johnson, D-Nassau, stopped the questioning.
“I want to know what the rule is that I have to look at you while I’m speaking,” DeFrancisco said.
“I’ve given you some leeway, but you are out of order right now,” Johnson warned.
Sen. Tom Libous, of Binghamton, a Republican leader, chimed in, saying DeFrancisco can look anywhere he wants.
“Frankly, the decorum at this point is degrading,” Johnson said. He ordered DeFrancisco to “stop the accusatory” but allowed him to look at Kruger.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I want to look at him,” DeFrancisco retorted.
The chamber burst into nervous laughter.
The debate between DeFrancisco and Kruger revealed that legislative leaders didn’t meet a single time in more than a week to discuss the budget.
When asked by DeFrancisco how many leaders meetings took place during the first week of May, Kruger said there were two five-way meetings between the governor and majority and minority leaders, as well as several three-way meetings between the governor and majority leaders.
“Were those meetings among staff members or with the leaders present?” DeFrancisco asked.
“Staff,” Kruger replied.
Minutes later, having received new information, DeFrancisco pointed out that the meetings among staff were about budget extender bills, not the actual budget. By that point, DeFrancisco was visibly disturbed, raising his voice slightly and emphasizing his points with his hands.
“Each week, people are getting more and more frustrated,” said Sen. Kenneth LaValle, R-Port Jefferson.
RANTING: Sen. Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn, made headlines last month by launching into a public rant in which he accused Sen. John DeFrancisco and others of being white supremacists. Here he applauds with his colleagues as Dennis Mullen last week was confirmed as head of the Empire State Development Corp. Late last month, DeFrancisco and Brooklyn Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker burst into a shouting match during a routine confirmation of an appointee to the Power Authority. Parker, who is black, accused DeFrancisco, who is white, of being a racist. A day later, Parker implied that DeFrancisco is “a white supremacist.”
DeFrancisco and Parker have since attended committee meetings and Senate sessions together but have not talked to each other. Both said they have moved on.
“None of us came here to make friends. It’s not a social club,” Parker said.
Parker said lawmakers are tense because they want to get a budget done.
In the Assembly, legislators took their frustrations out on the governor.
Wednesday, about 25 Assembly Democrats who said they were fed up with “a lack of responsiveness” from Democratic Gov. David Paterson stormed the governor’s office and staged a two-hour sit-in to demand a budget update.
Paterson called the protest “a ploy” and said he’s returned every phone call made by any other lawmaker.
But Assemblyman Al Stirpe, one of the protesters, and other Assembly members, including Joan Christensen, D-Syracuse, questioned whether Paterson was purposely stalling budget negotiations.
“He sees the budget as the only thing that keeps him relevant,” said Stirpe, D-North Syracuse. “He gets to go on the radio, on television three, four times a week. When the budget is passed, he becomes irrelevant.”
“I really wonder how serious the governor is about getting things done,” said Christensen, D-Syracuse. “I like him, but as a governor, I just want to shake him.”
READING: Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, examines documents while preparing last week for a session of the State Senate.
For now, legislators are going about their days, business as usual. Last week, they discussed whom they were going to appoint to state boards, considered bills about transfats and used session time to honor Girl Scouts and recovered addicts. Instead of working non-stop to negotiate a budget, they are sticking to their three-day work weeks. What’s the point of hanging around?
Amid it all, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver found new issues.
Wednesday, Silver urged Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona in protest of the state’s new immigration law. “Clearly you must sense the moral obligation to act,” Silver wrote.
Constituents and public employees are even more frustrated than lawmakers.
Last week, more than 1,000 people gathered in Albany’s West Capitol Park to protest the governor’s proposed furloughs for state workers. Men in suits screamed as union leaders called Paterson a bully. Women in heels jumped up and down waving hand clappers. Dozens of state employees held signs that read “Furlough You” above a picture of Paterson, while one man carried a sign that read, “Sell the rug,” referring to a $21,000 antique Turkish rug Paterson bought for the governor’s mansion.
“Do your job” is a message lawmakers have heard repeatedly from constituents, even while sitting in doctors’ offices, getting their vehicles serviced or shopping at the grocery store.
“I’ve had lots of meetings with people crying about the budget,” Stirpe said. “Some constituents want you to blow up government and would be happy if public employees never got paid again. Other constituents are affected by this and are asking us to help them.”
--Contact Delen Goldberg at dgoldberg@syracuse.com or 470-2274.