Three Men in a Room, Part II
April 2nd, 2007
As schools systems, hospitals and taxpayers try to figure out who wins and who loses in the new state budget, there seems to be one clear loser: open government. Contrary to promises by Governor Eliot Spitzer, the secrecy that New Yorkers have come to expect from their state government lives on in Albany.
Citing “a back-room negotiating process that represented a step backward for real budget-making transparency,” E.J. McMahon of the Manhattan Institute wrote in the Post, “Spitzer’s governance slogan has morphed from an assertive ‘Day One: Everything Changes’ to a plaintive ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’”
In a column largely devoted to chiding Spitzer for not taking his advice, the Post’s Fred Dicker said, “The Soviet-style secrecy that defined the budget talks - along with your willingness to use ‘messages of necessity’ to assure that neither individual lawmakers nor the public would know what was in the budget - stole the breath away from your most loyal reform-minded supporters.” In an accompanying, “report card,” Dicker gave the governor an “F” (for failing) on making state government more open.
The budget negotiation “must have been an April Fools’ joke,” wrote Through the Looking Glass. “New York lawmakers passed an estimated $120.9 billion state budget Sunday morning. How many of them knew the summary details of the budget? Maybe less than half. How many have a good knowledge of the state budget that was passed? Very few. How long was the debate? Pretty short. Was it basically a “smoking pipe” meeting between Spitzer, Sheldon, and Bruno? Yep.
To sum up, Gothamist agrees, “critics are unhappy with the secrecy, especially in the era of Spitzer, who claimed, ‘Everything changes day one.’ Maybe they change on Day 101?”
By Gail Robinson on April 2, 2007, 11:19 amIn category: Albany, Finance, Gotham City
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