Statewide satellite distribution of this program is made possible by the Lawrence Group,
providing residents throughout New York State with total insurance coverage.
This program is a production of WAMC News from Albany.
This is the legislative gazette, a weekly half hour review of New York State government and politics.
The host is political scientist and syndicated columnist Dr. Alan Sharton of the State University.
Hello and welcome to the legislative gazette. I'm Don Decker sitting in for Alan Sharton.
This week we'll look at an insider who sharply criticizes the legislature and will hear responses to those criticisms.
We'll review the Board of Regents approval of an age education manual and we'll hear a senator who will fight it.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundine talks about the superconducting super collider and the federal budget.
All that and more it's all coming up on this week's legislative gazette.
In an unprecedented press conference, Democratic Senator Howard Nolan of Albany,
this week sharply criticizes the legislature calling it inefficient and wasteful.
Laurel Douglas has this report.
State Democratic Senator Howard Nolan is critical of New York State's legislature.
His even gone so far is to introduce a constitutional amendment which would turn the New York State legislature into a part time operation.
Although New York State does not presently have a full time legislature, the lawmakers are nonetheless often held in session up through July and then sometimes even special sessions are called well into the fall.
It is Nolan's proposal that New York's legislature be limited to one three month session per year that New York's legislature be a part time legislature.
Nolan does not think New York State has so much legislative work that it couldn't be handled in one three month session.
If you're talking about, can we deal with the major issues facing this in a short period of time the answer is absolutely yes.
Can we deal with a lot of the minor issues that the relatively minor issues the answer is no?
We have a 20, 25,000 bills and it will sometimes the legislature really act on maybe a 16, 1800.
How many of those are truly important?
I mean, you know, you could probably cut those issues down to 100 and 200 and they're truly important.
We're having a lot of the committee meetings all the time going with whether the industrial development agency or the bill is XYZ is able to exist.
I mean, there's really a lot of things that have nothing to do with state government that the up-to-sale legislature has to put their income on around.
We really, it doesn't take one, we're supposed to lose time's issues.
One of the other things that I think of all of you who have covered the legislature in the past know that between January and April 1 budget time almost no legislation gets passed and it doesn't only have to do as well as the records so to speak.
The budget rules were really what gets done in the first three months of the session. Nothing else happens.
Nolan says there are bills that get reintroduced every year with the same arguments in the same form with the same speakers and then yearly they get voted down.
Those bills he said could be eliminated altogether. Nolan says that despite what the people back home think, the general run of lawmakers don't have all that much power.
Instead, there is a concentration of power in the hands of two few people, a few legislative leaders and some senior members of their staff control at all. Nolan says and that's not healthy.
Nolan says the present situation where legislators are isolated from their constituencies by being an Albany for most of the year should end.
If legislators instead spent more of their year in the districts that elected them, Nolan says they would be more in touch with what their constituency thinks and wants and also more.
Nolan would like to see eliminated the current situation where legislators are dependent for their income on political jobs.
It makes them too fearful of special interest groups. Nolan says if the legislature proceeds as it has by 1969, no one in the legislature will be making less than $69,000.
Nolan says shorten the work requirements and reduce the pay to the $10,000 to $20,000 range. It would cut the cost of New York's legislature in half he says.
Nolan says what the framers of the Constitution had in mind for New York was a true citizens legislature, a legislature where the little man can be elected.
As Nolan says people like teachers and office workers, if they retained their regular jobs for the nine months they weren't serving as legislators, their constituency would be more fairly represented.
They'd come to Albany Nolan says knowing what the citizens in their own towns wanted and they wouldn't be swayed in their voting.
Nolan says if the public thinks most of the legislators time is spent in the legislature, they're wrong.
On legislators day he says gets used up with 40 phone calls, 30 letters and hours of public appearances.
Time spent in the legislature is minimal. Nolan says there are lots of legislators who will privately say they don't like where the legislature is going.
Whether they will publicly support him, Nolan doesn't know.
Well privately I know in the sentence a lot of people would agree with me whether they're really expressive publicly.
That's hard to say I really have never put that question through a lot of my colleagues but I know privately a lot of them will serve over the direction of the legislature.
On the other hand there are other ones, a lot of the legislators who would prefer a full time legislature and are aiming at working for them.
Asked if his amendment that proposes a part time legislature will be one of those house bills that won't get out of committee Nolan said maybe.
But he says most legislators around the country meet less than we do, some meet every other year. For the legislative gazette I'm Laurel Douglas.
Senator Nolan may stand alone in his criticisms within the legislature but a former Republican Assemblyman from Sconnected he says he agrees 100% with him.
For that report here's Brenda McMahon.
In his criticisms of the legislature Senator Howard Nolan says he has no support from his colleagues but we found support from at least one person who's familiar with the legislative process.
Clark Wempel is a former Republican Assemblyman who spent 17 years struggling through the legislative system. Wempel says he couldn't agree more with Senator Nolan.
He is on the money. He's made those statements they're absolutely correct from my management.
It's a waste of time, it's a waste of money the way the legislature is being run. Not only inefficient but extravagant. And as far as I'm concerned it's a bad scene.
It discourages people who really want to accomplish something. I guess probably too long to make that decision but I just couldn't stand going to that chamber again.
It'll listen to the same old bills being debated with the same results year after year after year. That's the perfect example.
Everybody knows it's going to be vetoed. It's still going through the charade. And there are hundreds of other bills just like it.
Wempel says not only do legislators waste several months a year but he agrees that they have no power. He says the power lies within the hands of three men.
The system is very much top-heavy in both parties. It's the leadership calls the shots over there. No legislation is going to get by without the governor and the assembly speaker and the Senate president being on board. They can push anything, they can kill anything really without regard to what the members want.
Really you've got to try imprint not a legislature. But not everyone agrees with Nolan and Wempel. In fact several would dispute their arguments. One such person is democratic assemblyman Moray's Hinchy. Hinchy says that the legislature would become a citizen based institution. It would be run by the rich.
Well I understand that he's calling for a return to the 19th century when you have a part-time legislators who were paid a minimal amount of money. It sounds to me like the establishment of some kind of an oligarchy, a privileged class that would serve here and make the laws for the rest of the people. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
Hinchy says shortening the legislative session to three months simply would not leave enough time for the work that needs to be done.
Well you wouldn't get the work done. There isn't enormous amount of work to be done here. We live in a very complex and growingly complex, highly technological, dynamic society.
And one of the responsibilities of the legislature is to keep pace and keep up with that and be sure that the government of this state reflects the needs of our society.
And I just don't think that we would be anywhere near able to contend with that in a session that lasted just a couple of months.
Assemblyman Mori Hinchy, if it's all true, if the leaders really retain all that power, then Senator Nolan's proposed legislation or constitutional amendment will never get passed.
Maybe Wemples write and it'll take a blockbuster to change things and Albany. Either way, only time will tell. For the legislative Gazette, this is Brenda McMahon.
In Attended to Vote, the New York State Board of Regents approved an AIDS instruction manual for school-aged children.
The manual is a recommended guide for teachers to educate students about the AIDS virus. It includes instructions on when and how to use condoms to prevent the spread of the disease.
As Bruce Robertson reports, the manual has been criticized by a prominent legislator.
The State Board of Regents last week approved an AIDS instruction manual which will be distributed to over 3 million New York State schools, included in the plan or various approaches to teaching students about the AIDS virus, including when and how to use condoms.
State Senator James Donovan, chairman of the Education Committee, said he supports AIDS education but is supposed to condom instruction.
And Donovan said he is drafting legislation which will make it illegal to display condoms in the classroom.
I'm saying that when the Regents or any other agency of government does something that is a fancied to the majority of the people in New York State, those people in the state have a right to seek relief through their representatives.
I suggest to you that the people of this state, particularly, and most respectfully, the parents of those children who are going to be going to school are going to resent as well as teachers, any suggestion that they have to demonstrate to seventh graders and above what a condom is and how to use it.
And under what circumstances you should use it.
Donovan also accuses State Education Commissioner Thomas Sobel of having motives beyond that of just an AIDS education program.
It must tell you that I think that one could arrive at the possibility that the Board of Regents has another agenda.
And I say this because during the deliberations on the Board meeting, I heard Mr. Commissioner Sobel speak against an amendment that would have less than the kind of involvement in classrooms and we're talking about AIDS, we're supposed to be talking about AIDS during this Regents deliberation and he focused on a thousand plus pregnant girls in the system.
I don't know what that has to do with AIDS prevention. It certainly has something to do with kind of instruction, but my point is it appears that they might be trying to put some form of birth control information and devices into the schools of New York State.
Dr. Michael Willie of the State Education Department played a significant role in the implementation of the AIDS Manual.
Willie says the AIDS Manual is intended to meet a critical health need.
He says the Manual gives local school districts an opportunity to modify the program to suit their own social norms, but Willie also feels there is a need to be responsive to young people's sexuality.
I think that we have in New York State, for example, annually, about 1,725 young girls ages 10 through 14 who get pregnant.
When we look at the age group, 10 through 19, we're looking at about 60,000 young women getting pregnant.
That means that obviously there's a male somehow involved and what we are saying is that youngsters are sexually active.
Certainly we encourage and stress abstinence. We in no way condone sexual activity among young people, but we must realize that in fact that this is happening in New York State.
Dr. Michael Willie Bob Rice, spokesman for the New York State United Teachers, agrees that the only guaranteed way to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus is abstinence.
But he says although this is stressed in the manual, schools also have the responsibility to teach all methods of AIDS prevention.
That includes teaching those who choose to be sexually active, the importance of using condoms.
Realistically we know that many young people are sexually active and it's not reasonable to assume that they are all going to suddenly practice abstinence.
So part of the instruction has to be that condoms is the most reliable form of prevention other than abstinence.
If you're going to engage in sexual intercourse, then be sure to use a condom because it's a matter of life and death.
And I think that's a responsible way to approach it. It's not promoting sexual activity, but it's recognizing that it exists.
And I think that there have been studies that have shown that sex education does not promote sexual promiscuity.
It does not encourage young people to start their sexual activity at an earlier age.
What it does is inform them about the dangers in terms of transmission of diseases and ways to prevent it.
And this is along those same lines.
And I'm personally of the opinion that anything we can do that might save somebody's life and prevent them from getting AIDS we should do.
Rice adds that Senator Donovan's proposed legislation is irrational and by omitting information he would do a disservice to the children of the state.
For the legislative Gazette, this is Bruce Robertson.
The costs of the AIDS epidemic to the insurance industry have become an issue.
As New York and Massachusetts have both curbed attempts by insurance providers to require AIDS testing for some insurance policies.
Mori Small reports this issue is also a concern for organized labor.
New York State's top labor leader says unions are getting worried about the effects of the AIDS epidemic on insurance coverage.
Ed Cleary, president of the state AFL CIO, says AIDS could cripple the health plans that American workers have thanks to collective bargaining.
I spoke with Cleary by phone from Miami where he was attending the National AFL CIO Biennial Convention this week.
Cleary says the federal government should step in now to protect employees health coverage.
With Jalen Gurry strongly with the old question of AIDS that it's putting a tremendous burden on the health plans that have been negotiated through collective bargaining.
And it's mostly the union plan that has set the patent in the country for health care coverage for workers.
Something has to be done to see that those plans do not go under because that AIDS, as it keeps growing, it is set up at the end of the portion.
With no end in sight that the government asks the step end and start to seriously consider how they can protect these plans.
So health care coverage isn't lost completely.
What can the government specifically do about that though?
Well, it shouldn't be just the ones that are affected with AIDS and those plans that cover those particular people.
AIDS is a problem facing the 200 million people in the United States.
Everyone has a responsibility.
It's similar to when you had a face the problem of people reaching retirement age and not having any coverage, Congress put through a bill to provide Social Security back in 1936.
And now you've got an epidemic that's not going away and from all signs and indications coming out of Atlanta, the disease control center, it looks like they haven't even put a tenant to it yet.
What the government has to do is take a very firm hand and to start making the financing available.
To understand it, the backup pool so that no one insurance plan gets hit harder.
Right.
They still need the basic coverage for the appendix operations and the breaks and all the other things.
We should clear it. New York State AFL CIO President talking with us from Miami where the Labor Confederation was meeting this week.
For the legislative Gazette, this is more e-small.
In a conversation with Dave Galetli, Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin this week spoke about the superconducting super collider controversy.
The issue, the state economy. Lundin contrasted it with the national economy.
We have a protest from some people who are affected by the project or could be if we actually carried it out in the Rochester area.
But I think it has a broad support of the community business, university, labor, and other important segments of the community in the entire region.
It's a tough issue because you have to acquire an awful lot of land for a mammoth project like this and some farms, some homes, get disrupted.
I'm convinced we will treat them fairly and that in the end it will be a great asset to the Wayne Monroe County area.
What do you tell the people who are actually opposed to the project right now?
Well, we're going to be as fair as we possibly can. We're going to disturb as few land owners as possible.
We're going to try to negotiate with the federal government to reduce to an absolute minimum.
The amount of disruption caused. For those whose land we do have to acquire, we will relocate them.
So that financially, anyway, there are no worse off than they were before.
I think basically you try to explain that this is a tremendous thing for the Rochester area and indeed for the whole state of New York.
And sometimes to make community progress, you have to disturb some people in that community to widen the road and improve traffic.
You have to disturb some people's front lawns and take some properties and that kind of thing.
It's unfortunate, but we don't exercise that kind of a power casually and we think this project is very positive for the area.
Let me switch gears. You've had some experience obviously on the federal level before coming to the state.
And we've noticed in the last couple of weeks with the real gyrations in the stock market that a lot of the blame is being put on the fact that the federal balance of the federal budget is unbalanced.
How do you think the differences are? I mean, the state can run a balanced budget. Why can't the federal government?
Well, I think the twin deficits, the trade deficit where we're importing so much more than we're able to export and the federal budget deficit where we're selling the federal budget.
Where we're spending more than we're taking in taxes, create a very fragile kind of an economic condition.
We have to go out and borrow a lot of money. And we're living in this country, I'm borrow money.
The day of reckoning is going to come when we're going to have to produce more and consume less in order to meet service those obligations.
It's difficult to balance the federal budget because taxes have been cut and defense spending has been pumped up by an enormous amount in the 1980s.
There just isn't that much room in the rest of the budget to reduce spending.
You've increased the debt service part of the budget phenomenally. When I went there in 1976, Congress was spending about 5% on financing the federal deficit.
When I left last year, we were spending almost 15% on interest. So that's what's working against us in addition to the tax cuts and the defense spending.
The president and congressional leaders have been trying to get together now to cut the federal deficits.
We've just gone through a whole tax revision in this country, including the effects on the state.
And the state itself has passed a fairly hefty tax reduction over the next three years.
Do you foresee any effects coming now that it looks like there may be more taxes at the federal level as we look at the state tax picture?
No, I think we're in a very different situation. We're in sound financial condition in New York State, whereas the federal government is obviously in a very unsound financial condition.
In my judgment, what they ought to do is stop tinkering with the federal tax code. And if they need to raise a little bit more revenue, put a 1% surcharge or a 2% surcharge, or whatever it is on for a limited period of time, that way you've simplified the tax code.
You don't clutter it up with still more changes that could be disruptive to Wall Street, frankly.
And you've done what government needs to do, and that's raised revenue to meet necessary spending obligations.
So I think that all this talk about finding sneaky ways to tax the rich is sort of empty and could have an adverse effect.
I hope that they do have to raise some revenues that they do it in a fourth right and responsible manner and not worry so much about their own rhetoric as they worry about the real economy.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin.
Members of the New York State Regional Cooperative Marketing Agency met with the head of the Consumer Protection Board to discuss why milk prices have been soaring in New York State.
Brenda McMahon has more on that subject.
Since the Regional Cooperative Marketing Agency was established in New York, milk prices have increased 20 cents a gallon.
But members of RCMA, a price cartel for dairy farmers in the Northeast, say the increases are a result of the milk dealers, not the dairy farmers.
Richard Kessel, Director of New York State Consumer Protection Board, says the increase is unjustified, and he wants to get to the bottom of it.
Well, the state doesn't want to get into the business of telling milk dealers what the retail price should be.
We don't do it for eggs, we don't do it for cheese, we don't do it for frozen pizza.
I don't think we should be doing it for milk.
What we want to make sure is that the price at the retail level is established by open competition in the marketplace.
And what we're investigating is whether in fact there is a free and open competition in the marketplace.
If there isn't, then we would consider further anti-trust actions to open up the market.
But Senator Nancy Lorraine Hoffman, who helped organize RCMA, says it's not the dairy farmers getting the extra money.
Although RCMA negotiated a four cents per gallon price increase with dealers, there's still 16 more cents a gallon to account for.
Well, a number of the directors of RCMA joined me for the meeting with Commissioner Kessel.
I wanted to make sure that he understands that I think that he does, that the farmers are interested in long-term interests of the consumers,
and that we all face a problem with some misinformation that's been circulating about the current regional cooperative marketing agency.
We want people to know that the farmers are only going to net four cents a gallon in any price increase.
And yet I understand Commissioner Kessel has done a survey that indicates milk has been increased by 20 cents a gallon.
The consumers need to understand that the farmers aren't getting that increase.
Kessel agrees that the dairy farmers aren't getting that extra money.
He says the Consumer Protection Board and its New York City counterpart, Consumer Affairs Commissioner Angela Aponte,
will be investigating the retail pricing structure to discover where the increase lies.
For the Legislative Gazette, this is Brenda McMahon.
The saga of Speaker Mel Miller's top aid continues. Norman Adler, former political aide to Speaker Miller,
was offered a part-time job by the Speaker as a consultant for the Assembly Democrats, the majority.
Here's Bruce Robertson.
New York State Assembly Speaker, Mel Miller, is spearheading a move to make state assembly records more accessible for public review.
Miller has also ordered a review of all assembly staff jobs asking office supervisors to provide him with job descriptions,
a report also to be made public when completed.
And until that review is complete, Miller has also placed a freeze on all central staff hiring.
All of this activity comes just two weeks after Miller's top aid, Norman Adler, knocked down a New York Post reporter
who was investigating some practices in the Assembly office.
Miller's move to make the Assembly more accessible and accountable to the public also comes at a time when New York's legislature is dealing with a half-dozen investigations
into possible misuse of state payroll funds. One of the investigations already has resulted in the indictment of Senate Minority Leader, Manfred Orinstein.
Miller, however, is quoted as saying that his move has nothing to do with these other activities, including the Adler New York Post Incident.
Meanwhile, Adler may be offered a position as a consultant with the New York State Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, an organization that runs campaigns for the Democrats across the state.
Miller says he will speak to the committee about Adler, but only if Adler expresses an interest.
For the Legislative Gazette, this is Bruce Robertson.
And that's it for this week's Legislative Gazette. The show was produced by Brenda McMahon. She had helped this week from Morrie Small, Bruce Robertson, Laurel Douglas and Jodie Fetton.
We hope you enjoyed the program and you'll tune in again next week for more on what's happening in and around New York State. Until next week, when Alan Shartock returns, I'm Don Decker.
The Legislative Gazette is a production of WAMC News. Dr. Alan Shartock is executive producer. This program is made possible with funds provided by the State University College at New Ports.
Statewide satellite distribution of this program was made possible by the Lawrence Group, providing residents throughout New York State with total insurance coverage.
