Republicans in the New York State Assembly presented 13 rule changes designed to improve transparency, ethics, and the rules of the chamber yesterday, and the Democratic opposition, long the main target of such reforms based on a long history of corruption, shot them down one by one.
Assemblyman Jim Tedisco said the rule reforms would “stop major legislation like pension reform, teacher evaluations, the SAFE Act and state budgets from being passed in the middle of the night away from public viewing.”
Via Capital New York:
The votes were mostly along party lines. Democratic Assemblyman Michael Kearns supported most of them and his colleague James Skoufis supported some, but other members of their conference were consistent in their opposition.
The proposals included measures such as the posting of committee votes online and term limits for legislative leaders.
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin took a shot at recently arrested former Speaker Sheldon Silver, saying term limits are good enough for an office like President of the United States, but in the Assembly somebody like Silver can serve indefinitely or until they “get removed by other means.”
McLaughlin took to Facebook and railed against his Democratic colleagues for voting against the reform measures:
If anyone out there needs to show their kids a lesson in what glaring hypocrisy looks like, please tune in to the Assembly live feed immediately.
The Assembly GOP put forth 13 rules changes that would improve transparency, ethics, and the rules of the chamber. The Democrats are in the process of voting down every single one of them. Remember that when they talk about ethics and honesty.
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They seek to perpetuate a system that had turned NY into a swamp of corruption. If 8 years is good enough for a President it’s Damn sure more than enough for any “leader” of this Assembly.
The Mental Recession has extensively chronicled corruption in New York politics, most notably within the state Assembly. It has been so widespread that there is a serious proposal to create an Albany Museum of Corruption, which will encourage visitors to lie about their age in order to pay a lower entry fee.
Tedisco noted on his web site that author Bob Woodward once wrote, “the worst thing we have to fear as Americans is ‘secret government because in darkness democracy dies.’”
Democrats just killed it again.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
