Jun 19, 2009 7:55 pm US/Eastern
Dysfunctional Senators Go Home With Checks In Hand
Mayor Bloomberg Puts Pressure On Lawmakers; Says Gridlock Could Cost New York City $2 Million A Day
Despite Lack Of Leadership & Legislation, $79,500 Salaries Paid
ALBANY (CBS) ―
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Mayor Bloomberg said the stalemate in Albany was costing New York City precious time and money, at nearly $2 million a day. (File)
CBS
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Sens. Dean Skelos (l) and Pedro Espada (r) are sworn in in the New York Senate chambers on June 8, 2009.
CBS
They've done absolutely nothing for the past two weeks, but the 62 members of the feuding state Senate are being paid handsomely to do it.
Put it another way, their inactivity could lead to thousands of layoffs … but their jobs are secure.
Dozens of unpassed revenue bills crucial to New York City, Nassau County and other localities are gathering dust. The situation is so critical local layoffs are looking like a must.
"Every day they don't pass the increase in the sales tax costs us $2 million. That's 20 employees. Long term, make no mistake about it, if we don't have the revenue we can't have the employees," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
But breaking the Albany logjam seems near impossible.
"Now is the time not to duplicate what happened in Taiwan or across the country, when you'd see individuals on the floor wrestling for the gavel," said Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn. "We need to sit down with the upper house, with the senators. We need to come to an agreement on the decorum we are going to practice once we get to the Senate floor."
The biggest stumbling block seems to be the insistence of turncoat Pedro Espada on being the president of the Senate.
"Since we can't agree on that, let's put it to the side. We have the whole summer to deal with it," Adams said. "Let's deal with the specific bills."
But what really galls voters is that while they didn't pass any bills, they still found a way to make sure they get paid -- $79,500 a year for the part-time jobs.
"I think that's awful. That's terrible. I mean they should figure out how to get everybody else paid first," said Tony Aramburu of Park Slope.
"I just think that the whole thing is ridiculous that they're not working," added Diane Traiger of Manhattan.
"I think it's a total disgrace what's going on in Albany," said Phillip Falk of Murray Hill. "I think they're putting their personal egos and little quarrels ahead of the people of the state."
"They should not be getting paid right now until they are back to normal," said Sharon Scott of Bedford Stuyvesant.
The legislative session is supposed to end next week.
Meanwhile CBS 2 HD has learned that on Friday Sen. Espada finally filed seven missing and overdue campaign reports with the Board of Elections.
He claims he spent absolutely nothing -- no mailings, no ads, no constituent voting materials --from either the hotly contested 2008 Senate primary or the general election.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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