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Contact Me Welcome to LizKrueger.com I'd love to hear from you. You can contact me by clicking here.	News Newsday, November 2, 2005 Lawmakers Sue Governor, Legislative Leaders, Over Resource Allocations Samuel Maull NEW YORK -- Two state lawmakers and an advocacy group asked a Manhattan judge Wednesday to end the discrimination that legislative leaders practice against rival party members in allocating work-related money and resources. Lawyers for Thomas J. Kirwan, Republican assemblyman from Newburgh, and Liz Krueger, Democratic state senator from Manhattan, and Manhattan's Urban Justice Center, allege the leaders' allocation practices violate state laws against discrimination. Attorney Kathryn Spann, who represented Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Gov. George Pataki during the hearing, told the court that the legislature has "absolute immunity" and that the "separation of powers" doctrine bars the court from reviewing internal legislative functions. State Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon reserved decision. Plaintiffs say the Democratic speaker of the Assembly and the Republican majority leader of the Senate control the public funds for each legislator's staff, so members of each leader's party get more than members in the opposing party in that chamber. These funds are used for members' mailing and printing costs for newsletters, office space, travel expenses, and other work-related costs. The moneys are also used for constituent services and programs such as museums, little league uniforms, after-school programs and senior citizens' support centers. "I'm a Republican in the assembly," said Kirwan, 72, a retired state police trooper. "A Democrat from my area gets twice as much as I do. In the Senate, where she (Krueger) is, just the reverse happens." "My concern is not so much for me as my constituents," Kirwan said. Krueger, from Manhattan's Upper East Side, said Republicans have censored her newsletters to the extent of not letting her include web site addresses that they disapproved of, such as one that offered Medicare advice. Spann asked Solomon to dismiss most of the claims. "Where a function is assigned to the legislative or executive branches," Spann said, citing previous cases, "the doctrine requires that the court decline to review" a dispute about that function. Evan Davis, lawyer for the plaintiffs, argued that "when they split up that allocation among members it is not a legislative function; it is an administrative function," and therefore reviewable by a judge. Solomon asked what the court could do if a lawmaker complained that everything related to his job had been taken from him except his salary. Spann replied, "It's a political matter. The legislature is entitled to absolute immunity. It's not reviewable by the court."
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