New Coalition Brings Reform To State Senate

I just got this statement from the Senate Republicans concerning the new coalition and what they are bringing to the state Senate. You all have to agree that this year has been the worst in history. Talk about dysfunction. Everything was done behind closed doors, everything. As details come out after the budget vote we know just how bad things were and are.

STATEMENT BY SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER DEAN SKELOS
New Coalition Brings Reform To State Senate

When Senate Democrats campaigned last fall, they promised change and
reform. Unfortunately the leadership they elected broke their promises,
reneged on their commitments made to 19 million New Yorkers and to every
member of the Senate, and calcified Albany dysfunction instead of ending
it. Today, real change and real reform begins.

A new bipartisan, coalition elected today has delivered on the
promises for reform that the Senate Democrat leadership failed to keep.
The new rules adopted today will create a more open, bipartisan,
transparent and member-driven body that will take dramatic new steps to end
Albany dysfunction.

When Senator Malcolm Smith was elected Majority Leader in January, he
stood in the chamber and said “we have to change the way we do business in
this chamber. Transparency that has to be real and accountability has to
be real.” However, the result has been the most secretive and dysfunctional
session in recent history and a complete and total failure to govern.

The leadership in the Senate and the Assembly conducted secret budget
negotiations that resulted in record increases in taxes and spending.
Members of the Senate from both parties were excluded from participating in
the process. More secret negotiations by the Democrat leadership in the
Senate and Assembly followed as an MTA bailout plan that included even more
tax hikes was put together behind closed doors, with no input from the
public.

On other important issues, the Senate Democrat leadership has
routinely stifled debate on the floor of the Senate and made a mockery of
the committee and legislative processes. All power and decisions continue
to rest with the Majority Leader and, more troubling, his appointee, the
Secretary of the Senate who has been given unprecedented power over the
operation of the Senate and how it functions as a legislative body.

Under new Senate rules adopted today, more power is given to
individual members, the committee process has been strengthened, greater
debate and consideration of legislation will be allowed and resources among
the members of both Majority and Minority parties will be equalized.

Beyond reform, the new Majority coalition will empower the Latino
community in this state and begin to fulfill promises made to them by the
previous Democrat leadership. Senator Espada, Senator Monserrate and others
believe they and the more than 3 million Latinos in this state deserve
greater recognition and representation in the Senate and that by joining in
a coalition government with our Republican Conference we can fulfill the
promises of reform, change and empowerment.

By joining together, our bipartisan caucus will join State Senates in
New Mexico and Alaska and the lower houses in Texas, Tennessee and
Louisiana, that have bipartisan coalition governance.

By adopting new rules we will guarantee more accountability,
transparency, efficiencies, balance and fairness in the Senate. We believe
the result will be better representation for the constituents we represent
and better results for taxpayers, businesses and families in this state.

Last week, at a news conference, I said that it would be a tremendous
legacy for a lot of us to say we really reformed the system, to look back
and say that I was part of that. Today will be remembered in state history
as a day when real change and real reform began and dysfunction ended.