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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005Contact: Jordan Isenstadt (c) 516.991.3842 (w) 212.490.9535 (f) 212.490.2151 State
Senator Liz Krueger Leads Democratic Conference in Pushing for Legislative
Reform Presents Broom to Good Government Groups
and Praises According to Senator Krueger, the first priority
on the reform agenda should be to reform state lobbying laws by implementing
reporting requirements for contract procurement lobbying. “Lobbying has played a historic role in
government and I would never propose eliminating lobbying,” said
Krueger. “Yet in Senator Krueger
addressed several other outstanding reform items, including the creation of a
non-partisan redistricting commission and public financing of campaigns, as
well as more specific legislative reforms like altering the committee
structure, ending absentee proxy voting in committee, and crafting a
functional conference committee system.
“Our efforts to make meaningful changes in the legislative rules have
been blocked by the Majority time and time again,” stated Senator Krueger. “In fact, of four proposals offered in the
Rules committee since this session began – on topics including open bill
sponsorship, recording votes on discharge motions and requiring a 3/5’s vote
to accept messages of necessity – the Majority has never even responded. The
Majority refuses to bring these bills up for consideration and until they
decide to act seriously about reform, these proposals will languish – unread
and unconsidered in the Rules committee.” The Democratic Conference also addressed the ever-growing
problem of public authorities. Public
authorities were originally established to take politics out of government,
and to help the state build and expand major construction systems, public
universities and other programs. “In far too many cases, public authorities
have become a jobs program for political cronies and provide a funding stream
for well connected lobbyists and campaign contributors. Public authorities now hold more than 90%
of the state’s debt and yet they are not subject to appropriate standards of
oversight and accountability. We must
act now to improve public authority transparency, ensure independent
oversight of public authority operations and improve the contracting
process,” said Senator Krueger. Senator Krueger is
the chair of the Senate Democratic Task Force on Legislative and Budgetary
Reform. Prior to the 2005 Legislative session, the
task force heard testimony from a variety of witnesses on ways to open
the legislative process and increase accountability, efficiency and fiscal
integrity in the Legislature. Task Force members include Senators Neil Breslin, Byron Brown, Thomas K. Duane, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, George Onorato, Suzi Oppenheimer, Kevin Parker, John D. Sabini, Eric Schneiderman, Malcolm Smith, Toby Ann Stavisky
and David Valesky. To celebrate “Reform Albany
Day”, a coalition of good government groups, including the League of Women
Voters, NYPIRG, and Common Cause, held a rally on the Capitol steps. Senator Krueger, along with Senator David
Valesky, joined the rally and presented a broom to the coalition honoring
their work to help clean up “When I was elected in 2002 on a
platform of reforming -30- |
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