Senate Farce's Casualties

As this newspaper went to press June 29, the State Senate remained deadlocked as Republican and Democratic factions sought to work out a power sharing arrangement in time to act on legislation that had to be passed before July 1, including continuation of mayoral control of the city schools.

Given the Legislature's past prowess in passing bills at the very last minute—perhaps the one thing it does well—there was still reason to hope that an agreement could be brokered in time for this and a few other matters to be taken care of. But it is hardly the way to do business.

A consensus has been reached between the Bloomberg administration and the State Assembly on small but potentially significant tweaks in the mayoral control law, and that legislation has the support of the United Federation of Teachers. The new leader of the Democratic Senate conference, John Sampson of Brooklyn, favors more-extensive changes, including creating set terms for members of the Panel for Educational Policy. This would give those members a measure of independence they currently lack, since the Mayor can remove them at any time if they take a position that displeases him.

Ideally, the merits of this plan would have been debated over the past three weeks. Instead, the weak leadership of then-Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and the opportunism of dissident Democrats Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate and former Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos sparked a rebellion that has thrown the upper house of the Legislature into chaos.

All deserve a share of blame, but the latter three perhaps most of it because the timing of their power grab had the effect of disrupting the Legislature at the most-inopportune moment. Among the potential casualties are cops and firefighters and their unions, which normally count on Senate Republicans on legislative matters but now find themselves confronted by Governor Paterson's threats to veto important "temporary" bills concerning pension benefits if they don't agree to some form of Tier 5 for future members. That matter is unlikely to be resolved even if the two sides declare a truce long enough to deal with the school control legislation and sales tax increases for the city and other jurisdictions.

Beyond the embarrassment the warring sides in the Senate have caused themselves and the state, they have thrown good government into the fire, with the risk that some of the damage could be irreparable.