If Andrew Cuomo has changed anything in Albany, it's how the government functions. A system that was plagued (or blessed) by late budgets and an inability to make timely decisions is now on schedule and on top of things large and small. Mostly.
Late budgets had become a symbol of what the Brennan Center called "a dysfunctional Legislature," and the term stuck. It was a bad rap, in truth. Late budgets were the most important part of getting things done. If you believed in funding for schools, cities or health care, it was the only way the Legislature had to get governors to do the right thing.
Most New Yorkers don't understand that the things they want the Legislature to change in the budget can only happen if the Assembly and Senate sit down and hold their breath until they turn purple. The Court of Appeals made this crystal clear: The Legislature's budget authority is limited to the power to delay, to "refuse to act on the budget pending negotiations with the governor."
The Legislature can — and almost invariably does — refuse to act on the budget, pending negotiations with the governor.
The inefficiencies of New York's budgeting system are well known today, and much deplored; the word "gridlock" is often used." That's it, folks. No late budgets, the governor gets what he wants.
And sure enough, as late budgets disappeared, so did the Legislature's leverage on budget issues. No other governor since Nelson Rockefeller has gotten so much of his way on budget matters. Cuomo insisted on and got Republican austerity economics, tax cuts for the 1 percent, spending cuts and corporate subsidies without much resistance, especially from Assembly Democrats. On-time budgets made the reformers happy, to be sure. They just didn't do much to help the people of the state.
Now this much-applauded reform is coming back to bite the very reformers who support it. Much of the leadership of the left has decided that campaign finance reform is the most important thing that can come out of the budget. While rank-and-file progressives are more concerned with Cuomo's tax cuts for the 1 percent, or school aid or fracking, the inside game has been all about public financing of campaigns.
The Assembly has always been on board. The Senate, not so much. And Cuomo has led the charge in the press, but has never pushed for campaign reform in the budget. And so, after getting Senate Republicans to do gay marriage, gun restrictions and maybe medical marijuana legalization, the governor now seems to be admitting he's powerless to force a resolution of public financing in the budget.
If you believe that, I have a bridge across the East River I want you to buy. And if you want the Assembly or the Senate Dems or the Senate Independent Democratic Conference to hold firm, you better bring back late budgets.
There's a growing disquiet among grass roots activists about the governor's political strategies and many of his policies. Add that to a set of smart calculations by Sen. Jeff Klein and the Senate independent Dems about tax and budget issues, and we've got something.
All we need is for the Assembly to join the chorus and delay the budget until the governor engages in real negotiations about the estate tax and school aid and medical marijuana and, yes, public campaign finance.
So c'mon, Brennan Center and Working Families Party and CSEA and the School Boards Association and the teachers unions and Common Cause and Citizen Action, etc. Let's hear it: "Make It Late; Do It Right" "Make It Late; Do It Right".
Oh, for the good old days.
Brodsky is a fellow at the Demos think tank in New York City and at the Wagner School at New York University.