Bill Stachowski Meets His Constituents, Part Deux

Part 2:  Why 62 Senators Stood Pat for 2 Months NOT Doing the People’s Business.

Senator Bill Stachowski spent an hour and a half with about 25 members of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership last Thursday.  His introductory remarks focused on why he voted for the 2010 state budget.  In summary:

• The governor’s office gave them little to work with;
• Legislative rules prevented them from making wholesale changes;
• The state senate was forced to re-insert necessary expenditures that the governor’s office removed;
• The other side refused to deal with this mess last year.
• Voting YES was the lesser of two evils;

I’m glad he was able to deflect blame away from the Democrats; otherwise he would have had to implicitly blame my Democratic-leaning friends who voted for him.  Luckily, there were plenty of other entities with which he could spread fault for this fiscal mess.  This was a practice session:  I’m sure that next year during the election season he’ll find even more scapegoats and not-for-the-people public officials to impune.

But I was interested in learning more about the recent two-month-long senate stalemate, so during the Q&A I asked this question:

“There were 62 senators who – to a person – decided that allegiance to the Party was more important than the people’s business.  Why, to a person, is the Party so much more important than your own constituency?”

Stachowski got clearly irritated and trampled on the last word of my question to blurt out

“You’ve got it all wrong”

At which point some guy to my right shouted out “That’s bulls**t, that’s exactly what it was”.

Stachowski and the guy, and the guy next to him went back and forth for what seemed to be an uncomfortably long time but was probably just a few seconds.  I didn’t really mean to cause a ruckus, I just wanted an answer to a question that’s been on my mind since June.

“Our side offered 15 different resolutions to solve the impass.  The other side rejected all of them.”

He proceeded to explain the compromises that the Democrats offered the other side about power sharing, each party submitting bills on alternate days and some other measures to break the impasse.  He was clearly irritated but not belligerent.  I think it was because I distracted him from the roll he was on with the budget, with all that smugness because he could throw out jargon and policy-ese and bill-ese that only those in the know, like him, could comprehend.  The 31-31 impasse was clearly not something he wanted to talk about and he did so in a more curmudgeonly manner than on budget questions.

He never did answer my question though.  It is clear that neither he nor anyone else in the senate thought that crossing party lines was a solution.  I learned a lesson here, that someday, if I really want to wield power, I should join a political party so they can tell me exactly how I should wield it.  Yesiree, I’ll take my marching orders from the Party!

Stachowski is betting that by next November we voters will have forgotten about this rotten budget and the senate impasse.  Brian Sampson of Unshackle Upstate is betting that our state politicians’ collective behavior will not be forgotten.  Unshackle plans to be highly visible during the 2010 elections reminding the voting public how political spinelessness and Party allegiance above all else got us to where we are today.  Stachowski on the other hand has $4 million in legislative pork to spend on his constituency in order to buy their votes and make them forget.  Ah, pork:  a most potent amnesiac.

Back to the budget.  Brian pointed out that with 38 million people, California’s state budget topped off at $91 billion.  New York – with half that population – has a $132 billion budget.  Here’s what the burden per person looks like:

Brian also spoke of the state pension hole that will force dramatic tax increases in 5 years as state employees retire en masse (and move to Florida where the New York State legislature has much less authority).  Stachowski brushed it off as an accounting trick, that in reality the hole doesn’t exist.  This article begs to differ.  I beg to differ too.  In fact, I begged to differ with almost everything Stachowski said.  It would have been refreshing to have him even hint that New York State is out of control both fiscally and politically, but it didn’t happen.

Sampson was impressive in his ability to keep a straight face while Stachowski spoke.  When it came to credibility there was no contest.  When it came to having to feign respect, there was also no contest.  Both speakers get one point each.

I have to compliment Senator Stachowski for his willingness to sit in front of us and provide justification for political decision-making that clearly no one in the room believed was justifiable and then repeat that process time after time in front of various audiences.  It takes a real belief in the system and a really thick skin to do this, or else abject stupidity.  I’m not sure which camp he belongs to.

Next Up:  The Partnership, and the Paladino – Rudnick Love Affair

“Let’s Just Go Home”

Today’s State Senate quote is courtesy of Senator John Sampson (R, Brooklyn); here’s the link to the whole story.

The rest of the New York population gave up on the State Senate (and the rest of State government) long ago, so it’s not really news that Senators are giving up on themselves.  My advice echoes Senator Sampson’s:  Go home.

I’ll add:  Don’t come back.

I chuckle at the suddenly used and in vogue phrase “the work of the people.”  The Senate long ago stopped doing the work of the people and have been party automatons ever since.  Like robots, they don’t take accountability and don’t do anything they’re not programmed to do.  It is clear that these guys are merely puppets whose balls are being squeezed strings are being pulled by other, more powerful men.

Some court case years ago ruled out the possibility of withholding Senate paychecks (regardless of what Sampson says) over a debacle like this; that’s okay, the pay is a just a zit on skin raked with raging melanoma.  I just hope that we voters remember this past week the next time these half-wits come up for re-election.