State leaders pick up PEF’s call
Capitol reverberates with calls for

By SHERRY HALBROOK
If the old axiom that “timing is everything” holds true, 2005 may be the year PEF’s calls for legislation to ensure greater accountability in the funding and provision of state services are finally answered.

For more than a year, a mounting chorus of state political leaders (including state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi), reformists and newspaper editorialists have joined PEF’s call for reform. Now, the governor has finally picked up the call.

“PEF applauds Gov. George Pataki’s call in his State of the State address for governmental reforms,” said PEF President Roger E. Benson.

“We are glad he wants to stand up for taxpayers. We also call for more effective, efficient and accountable government. PEF has been a leader in calling for such reforms, which could save state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” Benson said.

Faced with new headlines nearly every day reporting financial abuses and corruption at state authorities and in the award of state contracts, the governor outlined proposals of his own which appear to reflect some of the legislation PEF has initiated.

Pataki set seven major reform goals:
1. Ban procurement lobbying;
2. Ban all gifts from lobbyists;
3. Mandate “new model principles” for state authorities “to ensure greater efficiency, openness and accountability;”
4. Establish by Executive Order a new “broadly inclusive” state Commission on Public Authority Reform to be chaired by Ira Millstein;
5. Eliminate or consolidate “hundreds of commissions, task forces, boards and authorities;”
6. Reform state Assembly and Senate rules and procedures; and
7. Enact budget reform legislation to produce balanced, on-time budgets.

“It is essential that these reforms make our government more transparent in its decision making and provision of services,” Benson said. 

“The governor’s call to improve legislative and public oversight of state authorities is a step in the right direction, but we must go even further, and broaden our reforms to drag the state’s shadowy off-budget agencies out of the darkness and into the light of public scrutiny.

“The governor was right on the money in his call for greater in-sourcing,” Benson said, Picking up on a boast by Pataki that “just recently, New York was ranked second in the nation in in-sourcing — attracting jobs from foreign based companies.” 

Benson called on Pataki to set an example by “in-sourcing state services, instead of handing them off to costly consultants and pricey private contractors. The best way to in-source, is to ensure that cost-benefit analyses are done before the state hires a private contractor. As taxpayers, PEF members want our government to ensure the most effective use of our tax dollars,” Benson continued.

“The governor’s call for reforms and greater public accountability are right on track and we volunteer our services, as public-service experts, to be part of the new Public Authorities Reform Committee which he would create.”

The Communicator May 2005
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