August 7th, 2009

August 7, 2009 by The Associated Press / MICHAEL GORMLEY (Associated Press Writer)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Think New York state government is broken? Want to fix it?

A lawmaker is calling for a constitutional convention to let New Yorkers overhaul a system of government they love to hate — and in a twist on previous calls for conventions, he wants to prohibit politicians, lobbyists and other special interests from being delegates or dominating what he calls a “people’s constitutional convention.”

Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb says his bill is getting a boost by five weeks of summer gridlock in the Senate during a fight for political power that stalled state government and action on important initiatives.

“There is so much anger out there by people feeling politicians aren’t listening to them,” the Canandaigua Republican said Friday.

In 1997, even good-government groups opposed a convention because the group of elected delegates would have been dominated by the forces Kolb wants to exclude.

A convention could create spending and property tax caps, term limits, a nonpartisan way to draw legislative districts that have long protected incumbents, and reform the budget process, he said.

“Think about it,” Kolb said. “In the Senate, any two or three people could hold the Senate hostage. And that’s unacceptable.”

Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran warned that Republicans, whom voters have put in the minority after decades of controlling the Senate, are now engaging in “Monday morning quarterbacking 40 years after the game.”

He warned that the bill is a ploy by Republicans to limit the authority of Democrats, who now control state government.

The Assembly’s Democratic majority spokesman, Dan Weiller, declined to comment.

Kolb said he hopes to get his bill approved by the Senate and Assembly and put to voters on next year’s general election ballot. Voters would decide whether to hold the first convention in more than three decades.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, made a strong pitch in June for a convention. At the time, Democratic Gov. David Paterson supported the idea as a way to reform Albany, but he warned that special interests shouldn’t be allowed to control the process.

Paterson is looking at Kolb’s proposal, said Morgan Hook, a spokesman for the governor.

“The idea of a people’s convention is very appealing,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, who said changing the way delegates are elected is critical.

“There are constitutional issues in the state that need to be addressed,” Blair said, “and given the growing voter dissatisfaction with Albany, I think it’s very appealing to the public at large.”