Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Equal Staffing Bill Introduced (Again) in Assembly

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, has reintroduced a bill in the assembly that has been floated over ten times since 1992.
The bill (AB 1487) requires the equal distribution of legislative staff and resources for every member of the legislature, and it has never even come up for a vote in any past session. Every year the bill is referred to the committee on Governmental Operations, where it is usually not addressed or is held for consideration, which is code for, "THIS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED."
The bill is aimed at ending an unbalanced dynamic that rewards the majority party members with an uneven amount of staffing compared to their peers in the minority, even though they have a comparable number of constituents (as is argued in the bill's memorandum).
In the assembly this reality is reflective of an overwhelming ineffective minority, which is a pointless objector to the whims of Speaker Sheldon Silver and his huge majority.
Tedisco's bill would call for an even split of the current resources, with members in leadership posts or committee chairs receiving extra staff, with the caveat that they can't be used for constituent services.
This is the type of bill that exposes a reality that makes people shake their head in disgust, but doesn't actually motivate them to care at all. It is that sad truth that allows Assemblywoman RoAnn M. Destito, the chair of the governmental operations committee, the freedom to refrain from even considering the bill in her committee.
This bill has no companion in the Senate, where equal distribution of resources was never even considered until the aftermath of the Senate Coup in 2009, when a more equitable distribution of resources was realized.
Anyway, if you've made it this far in the blog post, then I apologize for wasting your time, because my rant should be held for consideration while I wake up to the corrupt system I'm living in.
Time to watch Jersey Shore now. Night.

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