NY Times Jumps On Express Train To Bash Albany

Today, the NY Times launched announced its new editorial series on the incompetence of the NY State government, called "Failed State." A year away from state elections, a fired-up Times rails against the "inbred system [which] allows so many lawmakers to abuse the public trust," summarizing some of the more egregious abuses of the past couple years and some of the major grievances which they plan to address in the series. Warning—if you don't already want to head up to Albany with a pitchfork, you will now:

The Times calls its section about ethics reform, "Albany Needs Adult Supervision" and notes, "A year after the Spitzer [ethics] reform, a top official for the new ethics commission was accused of being unethical."
On Campaign Finance Reform: "An individual can give only $4,800 to a candidate for president, but $55,900 to a candidate for governor."
On a Transparent Budget: "Details are guarded like state secrets. Want to know how much taxpayers spend on roads downstate? Forget it."
On Election Reform: "Elections should not be an income source for sleazy lawyers whose business is bumping candidates off ballots."
On Mapmaking Tomfoolery (lawmakers can change their districts every 10 years): "The maps are so bizarre that one upstate district has been nicknamed 'Lincoln riding a vacuum cleaner' because of the way it looks as it reaches here and there to pick up enough friendly voters for a one-size-fits-one-party district."

Their litany of (justified) complaints against Albany is pretty staggering when you take a step back, especially considering how many denigrated officials its spit out. Maybe what's most remarkable is how everyone in town seems to be on the same page these days. This series, together with similar on-going ones by the Daily News and the Post makes a holy trifecta of majorly angry NY dailies demanding reform.

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By Ben Yakas in News on October 19, 2009 6:30 PM

Comments [rss]

MT

If everyone in Albany is so bad, then WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP REELECTING THEM?!?!?! We all know their shenanigans and yet they never seem to be voted out of office. Can someone please explain that to me?

Cautious Pessimist

Pork. Your guy can steal and steal and steal, but as long as he can point to a bunch of money he got for your district that one time, the people will elect him again.

For example, Espada. You're a fucking idiot if you think this asshole doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his days in general population at Rikers. But he uses that fucking health clinic (funded with your stolen tax dollars) to give a few of his constituents free health care, and he comes out looking like a saint to his idiot voters.

nicemarmot

There's a ton of local level election corruption around here. Ever notice how there always seem to be a lot of buses full of old people on election days? Funny how you never see those buses any other time...

Plus, for like an Espada type, there is apparently some fucked-up local pride like "haha one of our own is scamming the whole state." To which I say yeah, including you, fucktard!

JW

Albany, specifically the Assembly, is a government that rivals that of any banana republic. Look at the bozos who run. Sure, there may be a few decent folks, but when you look at the leadership and the way it works, is it any surprise nothing ever is done? That budgets are always late? That there's no transparency? From what I've seen of state senators, I'd be surprised if many of them really have any understanding whatsoever of the bills they vote on...

Free Refills

I suppose this is a more worthy series than their sensationalist claptrap about the alleged dangers of using cell phones in cars.

nivek

It's the same shit with the federal government. Everyone will blame the most public figure, the President, the Governor, the Mayor, for the follies of the legislative bodies.

mlcastle

The easiest way to know how bad things are at the state level is to note that the Times offers the City as a paragon of good governance.

nicemarmot

Yeah, that's why I'm always surprised Paterson gets so much shit from the media. Compared to the rest of the state government he's practically a saint. I mean, he can't get anything done, but nothing is quite a bit more positive than say, constant theft of taxpayer dollars coughcoughespadacoughcough

TKaisen

Because there's nothing scarier to the entrenched then a guy who has not shot at getting re-elected and knows it. So they take every chance to crush him and get their buddies in the NY Media to do it, too.

It also doesn't help matters that idiot voters think that running rich people out of town by overtaxing them is a good thing... because they will make that lost tax revenue up on the magic money tree.