Doors finally open for Assembly Republicans

Crains New York Business

Recent meetings on fixing the state budget involving executive and legislative staffers have included the minority conferences of both houses, which hasn’t always been the case. While this is encouraging to Republicans, the reason has more to do with politics than with good will, says Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb, R-Canandaigua: Democrats do not want to be solely responsible for more than $2 billion in service cuts, taxes and fees.

“They didn’t want us in the room before,” Kolb says. “Now that they’ve got a real problem, they want to share the pain.”

Kolb is not suggesting that his 40-member conference will oppose any budget fix. If he believes that a plan is “fair and balanced”—meaning that every constituency chips in—he will deliver Republican votes. One point to watch for is whether Democrats insist on holding allies, such as public employee unions, harmless. Doing so would cost them the political cover of GOP support for unpopular cuts to sectors like health care and education.

Kolb holds no illusions that his big-picture ideas will be entertained this month. “Nobody wants to talk about agency consolidation,” he laments. “There’s no management of the Medicaid system. It’s ripe for abuse and excessive care.”

The minority leader is pushing for a 2010 constitutional convention to pursue nonpartisan redistricting and fiscal measures such as property tax caps and limits on state spending and borrowing. A convention could spur reforms in Albany that elections alone will not. “Elections are helpful but really aren’t going to change the institution or threaten the institution so it performs differently,” Kolb reasons. “Businesses and taxpayers really have lost total confidence in state government. I ask every audience [I speak to] for a show of hands if you think the state government is working for you. Not a hand ever goes up.”

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091007/INS/910069982