WXXI: Session May End with a Whimper (2008-06-05)

The 2008 legislative session appears to be sputtering to a close. With just two weeks left, little progress has been made on any outstanding issues.

Lawmakers began the session with a number of items on their agenda. The state needed new rules to site power plants, the racing industry wanted to expand to slot machine gambling, and judges were demanding a pay raise.

As the year has progressed, other issues have cropped up. The rising price of gasoline has led some lawmakers to advocate suspending the gas tax for the summer, and the report of a property tax commission recommended capping school taxes at 4% a year.

But so far, with just eight days left in the legislative session, there appears to be no progress on any of these issues. Legislative leaders have kept a low profile, and Governor Paterson spends an average of just one day a week at the Capitol.

Government reform groups are particularly angered by the lack of action. Blair Horner, with the New York Public Interest Research Group, says there's been no real progress on the issues that former Governor Spitzer and Lieutenant Governor, now Governor David Paterson, promised to fix two years ago- including campaign finance reform.

"They ran for office and pledged to change Albany," said Horner. "It's a perfect time to evaluate their performance. It's been a failure."

In the middle of the news conference called by the reform groups, Paterson's staff e-mailed a proposal for campaign finance reform that mirrored the one former Governor Spitzer was pushing in 2007. The groups, including Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, say the bill, coming less than two weeks before the end of the session, is too late to be effective. They compared Paterson's actions to that of another former Governor, George Pataki, who proposed campaign finance reform just days before the end of the legislative session, then took no further action on the matter.

Barbara Bartoletti, with the League of Women Voters, says despite all the changes in governors since then, the posturing on reform and other major issues in Albany has remained the same.

"It's cover for an election year," Bartoletti said "The status quo remains."

The Assembly planned to issue it's own, different, one-house version of campaign finance reform. The Senate did not plan to act on the matter any time soon. Meanwhile, the Assembly has made no plans to act on the tax cap proposal, while the Senate has advanced tax cap legislation that differs significantly from the governor's plan.

Governor Paterson, who has been in office for less than three months, was asked about the seeming lack of progress on major issues at a recent question and answer session with the press.

"We're not talking about five years that we've been here," Paterson said. "We're talking ten weeks."

But Dick Dady, with Citizens Union, which endorsed the Spitzer -Paterson ticket in 2006, says Paterson is not new to state government. He was a Senator for two decades, and held a leadership position, and he signed on to Spitzer's reform agenda back in 2006.

"These issues are not new to the governor," said Dady. "He now needs to stand up and act like governor."

Paterson has also said that because of the state's looming $21 billion dollar deficit in the next few years, he's had to focus on New York's fiscal problems as a top priority, and let other issues slide for a bit. The governor so far has not been able to get members of the legislature to commit to any new spending cuts or revenue raisers. Paterson has said if there aren't any agreements by the end of June, he may call the legislature back to a special session to deal with unfinished business. He admits that may not take place, though, until after the November elections.