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Dear Majority Leader Bruno and Speaker Silver,
The Lord of the Rings
illustrates the intoxicating effects of the ring of power, and the
difficulty the Hobbits had in destroying it. You both are near
retirement, and could choose to use your amassed power to enact sweeping
democratic reforms. You could choose to reduce special interest
influence and forever destroy the rings of Senate and Assembly
autocratic power. Please leave your ivory towers; benchmark New York’s
performance against other states; act responsibly; and place New York on
a sustainable and prosperous path.
Since 1950, New York
State’s national significance declined by some 35%. New Yorkers
generated 12% of Total US Income in 1950, but only 7.5% in 2003. New
York had 43 Congressional Representatives in 1950 and 29 in 2003. New
York’s decline is not a northern climate phenomenon, as Minnesota and
New Hampshire grew their populations and shares of Total US Income
during the same period.
New York State taxing,
borrowing, spending, and mandating have increased at rates 2.5 times
inflation for the last 25 years. New York’s state and local taxes now
stand 48% above the national average, not 5-10% below, not 5-10% above,
but 48% above! With little to no population growth, the extra burden
this places on New York’s private sector causes businesses, talent,
youth, and capital to flee the state while the poor and dependent
proportionally increase.
The vitality of a
population’s economy determines its quality of life in the long run.
Without substantial surpluses created by a well-performing economy, New
York will not have low crime rates, excellent healthcare, world class
education, efficient transportation, a compassionate safety-net, and
edifying arts and recreational opportunities.
Democracy’s genius is
in dispersing power, fostering competition, and providing superior
feedback. Concentrated power, monopoly, and an absence of feedback
usually yield arrogance, corruption, and stagnation. Conversely,
dispersed power, competition, and feedback yield innovation, hard work,
and excellence. In a properly functioning democracy, all interests are
represented and no interest is over-represented.
In New York State, the
Republican monopoly on the Senate, the Democratic monopoly on the
Assembly, and your alliances with a few special interests have destroyed
the competitive election and legislative processes. They have destroyed
the democratic feedback mechanism.
New York has no
competition in most Senate and Assembly races, little within the senate,
and none within the assembly. Laws and government appropriations favor
the special interests making large campaign contributions. New York
State’s Senate and Assembly are not accountable to the people. They are
accountable only to themselves and the special interests! Consider the
following:
1)
Over the
last 24 years, senate and assembly incumbents won some 99%, or all but
34 of 2500, of their races.
2) During the last
two years, special interests gave the major political parties, the
Senate, and Assembly candidates $264 million, or more than $1 million
per Senate and Assembly race.
3) Within a few
years, numerous Senate and Assembly incumbents accumulate hundreds of
thousands in political donations- formidable war chests that discourage
serious challengers.
4)
In the
last election, one-third of the Senate and Assembly incumbents faced no
major party opposition.
5)
The
party leadership in both the Senate and Assembly has not changed in over
30 years, and the Assembly now has a 67% majority.
These facts do not
reflect a working democracy. These facts reflect a rigged system, a
system that denies every New Yorker choice, competitive elections, and
democratically selected representatives.
First, Speaker Silver,
the Governor and the Senate support Voter Initiative & Referendum,
the process where citizens and representatives can place initiatives
directly before the voters. Numerous countries and states have
successfully implemented this small step towards direct democracy.
Other than arrogance and keeping the power for yourself, what possible
motivation do you have for preventing citizens from directly voting on a
few initiatives each year? As hard as it is for you to fathom,
collectively the nineteen million New York citizens know better than you
what is in their best interests.
Second, implement
Redistricting Reform. If New York is to have a bicameral
legislature, let one house be based on geography, such as one senator
per county as was originally intended. Let the other house be based on
population, such as one assembly member per every 125,000 citizens. Let
Assembly members be apportioned to counties on the basis of a county’s
population, and then let County Legislatures draw the Assembly districts
within their counties.
Redistricting Reform
in this manner would forever end the partisan drawing of senate
districts, and disperse the power to draw assembly districts to
sixty-two County Legislatures. Upstate would have more say in the
Senate, and Downstate more say in the Assembly. By working out
differences in conference committees, only policies satisfactory to both
Upstate and Downstate would become law.
Third, pass
Campaign Finance Reform. Imagine how competitive legislative races
would be if all candidates could only raise campaign funds the ten
months prior to an election. Imagine how many more able candidates
would seek office, if after each election all candidates had to return
any unused campaign funds to donors, and the accumulated advantage was
removed.
By enacting Voter
Initiative & Referendum, Redistricting Reform, and Campaign Finance
Reform prior to the next election, you would demonstrate respect for
the people and the democratic process. In fact, failure to do so may
result in a class action lawsuit against each of you, as well as
Republican losses in the Senate and Democratic losses in the Assembly.
I will be writing to
you regarding other issues critical to New York’s future, like
Borrowing, Mandating, and Spending Restraints; Interstate
Performance Benchmarks; Medicaid Reform; Inner City
Education; Workers’ Compensation Reform; and Competitive
Electrical Costs in subsequent months. For now please work on
restoring the democratic process.
Sincerely,
Mark
Bitz
President
Plainville Farms
Readers may sign a
state-wide petition for Redistricting Reform by going to
SaveNewYork.org.
Readers may download
this letter, sign their name to it, and send it to Majority Leader
Bruno’s and Speaker Silver’s, as well as their Senate and Assembly
Representatives by going to FreeNYS.org. |
