Prospects for Reform
Can the Empire State Be Fixed?
The self-serving politicians, labor unions, trial lawyers, and other special interests that dominate the New York State Capitol have created
an array of problems that is truly formidable—but not insurmountable. A series of basic reforms could do much to break Albany, Inc.’s
growth-stifling stranglehold on the Empire State.
Cap spending growth. New York needs to join the 28 states that have put into place some form of constitutional limit on the growth of
state and local budgets. The best, most comprehensive model for such an approach is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) adopted by Colorado
voters in 1992. Instead of capping tax rates, TABOR attacks the source of the problem—spending by legislators—by capping it at the
prior year’s total multiplied by the rate of inflation plus annual population growth. Surpluses must be returned to taxpayers in the form of tax
reductions. Any increase in state or local debt or tax rates needs voter approval.
If New York’s budget had been subject to TABOR limits between 1995 and 2005, spending growth financed by these taxes would have been
two-thirds the level actually spent during that period. The cumulative savings would have been nearly $23 billion.
Encourage consumer-driven health care. The more Albany, Inc. wrings
its hands about the shortage of affordable private health insurance for New
Yorkers, the worse the situation seems to get. That’s because the state
government’s own policies are making health coverage more expensive—through
heavy taxes on private coverage, through a Medicaid program that shunts some
costs for the uninsured into the private sector, and through laws requiring
all policies to cover a wide range of treatments that most people wouldn’t
consider essential.
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"A series of reforms could do much to break Albany, Inc.'s growth-stifling
stranglehold on New York State."
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
A far better policy option would be to give consumers—not managed-care
executives and politicians—more freedom to shape their own health-insurance
coverage. Under a “consumer-driven” approach, individuals could
choose from a wide variety of health-insurance plans for themselves and their
families. One increasingly popular variant, coupling tax-free Health Savings
Accounts (HSAs) with high-deductible policies, promises savings of up to 40
percent compared with more traditional plans sold in New York.
Expand school choice—not school budgets. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity has been right about one thing: kids in poor inner-city
schools aren’t getting the sound, basic education to which they are entitled under the state constitution. But the answer isn’t CFE’s preferred solution:
rewarding failure with even more money. Families stuck with lousy public schools should have what more affluent New Yorkers already
effectively enjoy—choice in education. The 1998 law allowing for a limited number of charter schools in New York was an important start—but
only a start. The cap needs to be lifted to permit more such schools, and the charter-school funding formula must be adjusted to recognize the
higher cost of opening facilities in places like New York City. With U.S. Supreme
Court backing, the state of Ohio has shown how to create a limited state-sponsored
education voucher program for kids stuck in the worst schools. Even if courts in
New York blocked such a plan on state constitutional grounds, other options to
promote choice exist, such as tax credits to create incentives for contributions to
public or private school scholarship funds.
Revoke abused authority. The state’s statutory “cap” on borrowing, enacted
in 2000 and already circumvented, clearly isn’t enough to prevent the excessive
reliance on public authorities as sources of “backdoor” debt. The state constitution
should be amended to limit the number of public authorities, to flatly prohibit borrowing
to pay operating expenses, and to limit the state’s ability to issue new debt
without taxpayer approval.
Promote competitive contracting. Laws that stifle competition and boost
the cost of public construction should be repealed, including the Wicks Law
and Triborough provision. The state’s Taylor Law, governing collective
bargaining by public unions, should be amended to give employers—i.e.,
taxpayers—a stronger hand at the bargaining table. Public outrage over
the TWU’s illegal strike over the holidays helps set the stage for these
desperately needed changes in the law.
Depose lawmakers-for-life. The lengthy list of needed
reforms would certainly include a prohibition on fund-raising
during legislative sessions and on the use of campaign contributions
for non-campaign purposes. The legislature’s own procedural
rules are ripe for overhaul, as the Brennan Center detailed
in its widely publicized 2004 report. Term limits would at least
ensure that names and faces periodically change—but, absent
other reforms, attitudes in Albany seem unlikely to budge. The
single most crucial step to clean up the state legislature would be
the creation of a nonpartisan commission to redraw district lines
after each census. Ending gerrymandering would restore at least
a semblance of political competition—something almost totally
missing from the process of choosing legislators for decades.
Enact tort reform. Reforms in ethics and fund-raising statutes
would help reduce the legislative influence of trial lawyers,
paving the way for needed reforms such as a cap on “pain and
suffering” in malpractice actions, limits on lawyer contingency
fees, and repeal of outmoded New York statutes such as the
Scaffold Law.
Let the people be heard. Ideally, a state’s elected officials
are dedicated to protecting the interests of their constituents. But
that obviously isn’t the case in New York. Given Albany, Inc.’s
overweening power and entrenched resistance to real reform,
New Yorkers most desperately need one overarching reform: a
constitutional amendment allowing voters to initiate changes in
state law. In the 24 states that already allow it, the policy of initiative
and referenda—“I&R,” for short—has provided voters
with an end run around the seemingly hopeless corruption of,
or partisan deadlock between, politicians. Case in point: California.
Sure, bad initiatives also make it onto the ballot—and
sometimes into law—in I&R states. But the people themselves
are ultimately responsible and can eventually find a way to correct
mistakes.
Until recently, the very notion of direct democracy in New
York seemed like sheer fantasy. But lately, there is mounting
bipartisan support in the legislature for convening a state constitutional
convention—which could open the door to I&R even in
the Empire State. This could be the last best hope for returning
control of New York’s government to the governed.
<<previous
section
|
