Paterson Wants State Senators To Spend July 4 At "Work"

Because the two squabbling State Senate factions haven't come to any sort of leadership/power sharing deal, Governor Paterson issued proclamations for the Senators to hold special sessions at 3 p.m. every day through July 6. Which, Capitol Confidential reports, "means that the Senate will be in Albany through the holiday weekend." Nice—you can read the proclamations for July 2, July 3, July 4, July 5 and July 6.

Of course, whether the Senators will show up is another story. State Senator Ruben Diaz Jr. (D-Bronx) told the Daily Politics' Elizabeth Benjamin that Paterson could come and get him at "1437 Longfellow Avenue," in the Bronx, where Diaz will be preaching. He added, "...I would rather spend my time in church, preaching and praising the Lord, than to be here doing nothing, wasting my time...wasting the money of the people of the state of New York." Um, how about working out some sort of agreement to get work done? The leaders of the Democrats and Republicans haven't agreed to a meeting! And Senator Craig Johnson (D-Long Island) said his family will be up in Albany for the weekend, "My older son has been demanding an audience with the governor to give him a piece of his mind. Ben's comment was: 'Daddy, if he doesn't let you go, I'm calling the police on David Paterson.'"

And the State Senate has been criticized (by Mayor Bloomberg) for letting NYC's mayoral control of schools legislation lapse, the NY Times reports on how the deadlocked, non-working Senate is hurting other cities and municipalities, "New York City marshals can no longer enforce financial judgments. The City of Yonkers cannot send out property tax bills to homeowners. And in the Town of Deerpark, in Orange County, local officials cannot issue bonds that the town is counting on to balance its budget."