No One is Minding the Store

In the state where the debt grew from $27 billion in 1995 to $49 billion today, and the day of default on state debt obligations is fast approaching, the issue that resonates the most with voters is the fraud and corruption in Albany and the non-democratic nature of the legislative process. Stu Mirsky is one candidate for New York State Assembly I’ve seen, who is capitalizing on the public outrage to do something to reform New York’s legislative process, the most dysfunctional in the nation according to the July 2004 report of the Brennan Center of NYU. In an earlier entry, Mitchell Langbert wrote about Stu Mirsky’s Assembly campaign, where he discusses the consequences of the failed liberal model of big government as the panacea for social ills, in which the 75 year exodus of businesses and working people from New York State has continued unabated.

According to the Brennan report, New York’s defective legislative process thwarts accountability and invites corruption by excluding lawmakers from the very process for which they were voted into public office! The heart of this disgrace lies in a dysfunctional committee system that has become the status quo, leaving lawmakers ineffectual with no clout. “They vote on bills that they have had no opportunity to read let alone study,” and are thereby accountable not to the voters they serve but to the special interests and big public labor unions.

In the education sector, I’ve been well aware of the monopoly of the powerful teacher’s and faculty unions on the state legislative process since I’ve been involved with higher education reform issues. Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the State Assemblymembers obediently “rubber stamp” the agenda of the massive coalition of NYSUT (NY State United Teachers), UFT (United Federation of Teachers), PSC (CUNY Faculty Union), NEA/NY (National Education Association of NY), UUP (United University Professions), that have consistently misappropriated funds to issue anti-war resolutions, anti-military recruitment resolutions, and to send the rank and file to peace rallies and protests against the RNC. When the Academic Bill of Rights (A10098) was introduced as a bill in both the State Senate and Assembly earlier this year, NYSUT’s highly paid lobbyists went to work to kill the bill, while ensuring that incompetent faculty who use their classrooms to promote political agendas, and discriminate against students who have differing political views, continue unchecked, making over $100,000 per year for 12 hour or less workweeks.

Since no one in minding the store, this systemic failure has allowed the state debt to balloon out of control and the public sector labor unions and government programs to steal billions annually from the state taxpayers to use for their pet political agendas and to line the pockets of their own benefactors and pensioners.

This status quo has allowed the healthcare workers union and public sector unions to mushroom into omnipotent behemoths that have gotten away with rampant waste, fraud and political abuse scot-free. Recently involved in a $1 billion scandal, SEIU 1199, United Healthcare Workers, which has grown to become largest union local in the world, has also proudly trumpeted a political agenda as the first union in the nation to oppose the war in Iraq. According to Harry Lewis, a Mirsky research adviser, who recently reported the scandal on Urban Elephants, the $1 billion proceeds from the conversion of non-profit Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield to a for-profit company which was originally earmarked for charitable causes to increase access to health care for the uninsured, instead was diverted into the coffers of Dennis Rivera, the president of SEIU 1199. When the infamous “three men in a room,” Pataki, Bruno and Silver, secretly negotiated the deal with Rivera, the proposed legislation was unquestioningly voted into law, without a single legislator knowing what hit them. The malfunctioning committee process allowed them to summarily legalize the greed, corruption and grand larceny of the Albany triumvirate with Attorney General Spitzer turning a blind eye in complicity. This windfall enabled the SEIU 1199 to mount its massive anti-Bush campaigns giving paid leave to union members to actively campaign against Bush in 2004.

The Center for Individual Freedom reports on the new federal disclosure rules opening the books to witness the fraud of big labor unions misappropriating funds for left-wing political causes. The report reveals “unions such as the AFL-CIO and National Education Association (NEA) spent 60% or more of their discretionary dollars on partisan political activities in 2004 – 2005.” In one year, according to the disclosure, the SEIU spent $0 on “representational activities,” i.e. representing workers on the job and $27 million on “political activities and lobbying.” Workers should know that they have the legal right to demand the return of the 60% or more of their union dues that paid for partisan political campaigns or any uses other than representational activities.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Since no one is watching the books up in Albany, the state Medicaid program has been defrauding the public out of as much as $18 billion per year. According to a New York Times report, the Medicaid program created to provide health care for the state’s millions of poor people, has grown into a massive unchecked state bureaucracy that “has been misspending billions of dollars annually because of fraud, waste and profiteering.” The lack of effective legislative policing has allowed excessively greedy operators to get away with setting up lucrative scams and becoming millionaires on the backs of the taxpayers until the Times reported the malfeasance. Aside from the crooks unlucky enough to get caught, such as the nursing home operator who billed the state for a $1.5 million salary, the dentist who claimed up to 1000 procedures in a day, and ambulette drivers charging $200 million for rides overcharged or never given, the corruption continues unabated, as reported in January of this year in the New York Post, due to the dysfunctional state government that prohibits legislators from monitoring the untouchable Medicaid program. Again the triumvirate and Attorney General Spitzer continue to look the other way.

That is why I am devoting some time on my weekends campaigning for Mirsky. I am taking it to the streets where I’m finding a receptive audience in the collective public outcry for reform in Albany. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to wants to see new blood in the state legislature. I’ve also been talking up the candidacy of John Faso for Governor and John Spencer for Senate, two other strong voices for reform. Faso is running against Spitzer, our Attorney General who other than harassing New York businesses and Wall Street, has been sleeping on the job. Spencer is running against Senator Clinton, for whom New York is a one way ticket to the White House.