Brennan Center to NY legislators: Thanks for crawling in the right direction three years ago, but baby, you shoulda been walking by now.

In the brand-new update of the notable Brennan Center Report (In case you don’t know, that’s the report which dubbed NY as the most dysfunctional state government in America) they tell us what we already knew. Almost nothing has changed, most of the power is vested in the “three men in a room,” and our NY government, is, well, still dysfunctional.

In 2006 and 2007, most standing committees met infrequently or not at all. There were almost no hearings on major legislation. Not a single major bill was the subject of a detailed committee report. Leadership maintained near total control over what bills reached the floor. And on the floor, there was little substantive debate; every bill brought to the floor for a vote in either chamber passed.

They hold out some hope that things will change this year with change of majority leadership in the NY Senate… well, if it changes. A deal with the “Gang of Three” (don’t confuse them with the other famous Albany three) might be imminent… and might not. In other words, we don’t know yet if the NY Senate will have Republican or Democratic leadership, much less if reforms in their method of doing business are forthcoming.

Related posts:

1. Brennan Center: Despite the Baloney, N.Y. Senate deserves Thumbs Up
2. Curt Smith on NY GOP: “Brain-dead, dysfunctional”
3. NY Senate gets down to work on dysfunction, kinda
4. Maybe N.Y. should get Ideas for Better Government from Connecticut
5. Dollinger on the “State” of New York government