Tom Suozzi

Silver and Skelos: Has anything changed?

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Shelly Silver convicted. Dean Skelos convicted. The whole thing is kind of sad. These men and their families are ruined. The haters will have their pound of flesh and dance in the streets (or in their nasty anonymous quotes on line). People will go to jail. Prosecutors will be applauded. New elections will be held. But have these convictions solved anything? Absolutely not.

We still have the highest property taxes in America. We still spend more per student than any state in the country, with only average results. We’re still number 49 out of 50 states in the best-business-climate rankings. We still re-elect more than 95 percent of our state legislators despite the overall public disdain for the State Legislature. It is all related. The failure of our state politics is not only about these individuals and their failings. They follow a long line of indicted and convicted state politicians.

When I conducted my FixAlbany.com campaign in 2003, I pointed out that more elected officials in Albany had been indicted in the previous five years than had lost their jobs at the polling booth. In fact, in the past decade, more than 30 sitting or former state officeholders have been convicted, indicted or sanctioned.

What is it with New York state? There must be something about the way we operate that leads to high taxes and high levels of illegal activity by public office holders. I think I know what it is. There is a lack of competition that makes incumbents in the State Legislature feel immune to public pressure. This sense of immunity makes them less fearful of the public. As a result, they get arrogant, feel entitled and, ultimately, are corrupted.

Imagine if our legislators (and members of Congress, for that matter) were actually afraid of losing their seats. Don’t you think they would be more careful about following the rules? Don’t you think they would try harder to keep the people happy by reducing our property taxes and eliminating unnecessary state mandates?

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