Griffo: Reform Fight Must Continue

For Immediate Release Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Republican-Conservative State Senate Candidate Joseph Griffo today supported the Brennan Center as the Center released a renewed call for further reforms in New York’s State Legislature.

“When you have secrecy surrounding member items, a 13% spending increase, taxpayer-financed authorities growing mountains of debt with minimal oversight, the public’s work done in closed-door sessions and a top-down process shuts out the public, it is clear that the work of reform has far to go,” said Griffo, who in April called for wide-ranging reforms to open up the process of state government. “The Brennan Center deserves the thanks of every taxpayer for its leadership in pointing out just how far New York has to go to provide the kind of government the people expect and deserve.”

Griffo said that to further the work of the Brennan Center, Albany needs sweeping changes. “We need to impose term limits for the chairs of committees. Term limits for key posts, such as chairmanships of committees, are an important part of reform because they provide an impetus to change the way things operate, as well as preventing lobbyists from entrenching a single powerful legislator in office so that he or she can take care of their business,” Griffo said.

Griffo also said the Legislature needs to impose term limits on top leadership positions, all the way up to the Majority Leader and Speaker positions. “What we have seen in recent years is that when the same people are negotiating issues year after year, we lose the ability to have progress on key issues just because three people do not agree,” Griffo said. “We need to build in change, not build a wall to prevent it.”

Griffo said Albany still needs to embrace reforms proposed to increase the use of conference committees. “The initial Brennan Report noted that in 2002, there were about 17,000 bills introduced in the Legislature, about twice the number of next-closest states. Most of those were one-house bills that went nowhere because the two houses could never agree. Greater use of conference committees on a routine basis to iron our differences in legislation can allow the Legislature to do a better job of getting the peoples’ work done,” he said.

Griffo said the limited use of conference committees is a symptom of an under-used committee structure that is ineffective and inefficient.
“At every other level of government, committees are the heart and soul of the legislative function,” Griffo said. “When legislation comes from the top down, rather than the grassroots up, you have a disconnect that leads to government failing to do the will of the people. We need to get back to the system envisioned by the Founders and make the voice of the people the guide to public policy.”

Griffo said he support increased public availability of all documents prior to legislative action, including the budget, member items and key legislation.
“In the Internet Age, there is no reason why all the people of New York cannot see what the Legislature is doing with the budget and other major pieces of legislation,” Griffo said. “Right now we have a situation where an agreement is reached that involves very few legislators, and a vote is scheduled as quickly as possible to get everything done in a hurry. We need to open up this process. As a County Executive and a Mayor I have proposed budgets that were then subject to weeks of review. Because the state budget is so important and has such reach into the lives of everyday people, we need to put that budget agreement on line, so that people across New York can go on line and see what’s going on in Albany. All it takes is the ability to put documents on line. Democracy cannot flourish when the people do not know what government is doing. Secrecy breeds cynicism, and that is what is killing New York.”

“All of these pieces fit together to reform the Legislature to make it better able to do the work of the people of New York,” Griffo said. “Open government that is in step with what the people want is an essential foundation for changing how Albany works. We need to change how New York works, because until we do that, New Yorkers will continue to live in a state of cynicism.”