Midnight Government

Reporter: Has the pay raise been raised?

Governor Pataki: It has not.

Reporter: Do you oppose it?

Mr. Pataki: Yes.

Reporter: Are you ruling it out?

Mr. Pataki: As I've said on budget negotiations, on legislative negotiations, the whole way through, I oppose, but I've never drawn a line in the sand.

Reporter: How about charter schools?

Mr. Pataki: Charter schools are something that I feel very strongly about. Obviously the success of the charter schools has been proven. We're up to the full 100 complement that was authorized under the legislation. They're working well, or in those instances where they don't work well, we shut them down, which is exactly what we wanted to be able to do when we created this charter school system. So it's certainly something I'm going to be urging the legislature to enact next week as part of that session, that expansion of the charter schools.

— From Governor Pataki's press conference Thursday

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Well, here we are, three days away from a special lame-duck session in Albany that could determine the future of some highly significant issues. A pay raise for the most dysfunctional state legislature in the country is on the table, as is an expansion of the number of charter schools in the state. Also on the table is legislation that would take the selection of state trial judges away from backroom, and in some instances corrupt, political bosses and put it into the hands of primary voters. Another possibility is "civil confinement" legislation to allow the government to lock up convicted sex offenders in psychiatric care facilities after they have served their sentences if they are judged to be dangerous. Appointments to powerful boards, such as that of the City University of New York and the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, hang in the balance. So does the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project to bring a Frank Gehry-designed arena for the Nets basketball team to Brooklyn, along with residential and commercial space. And the multi-billion dollar project to build, around Penn Station in Manhattan, a new Madison Square Garden, a train station named after Senator Moynihan, and 10 million square feet of commercial space.

If even a fraction of this business is done during a one- or two-day session or as part of a deal that is approved in such a session, it will make President Clinton's midnight pardons of Marc Rich and company at the end of his presidency look like a model of good-government practices. These columns have always been of the camp that believes the substance is more important than the process. But the pardon power is in the Constitution as a presidential power for a reason, as a check and balance against the judicial branch, whose proceedings are in the vast majority of cases unsealed and open to public scrutiny. In New York State, the process makes it extremely difficult for the public to find out much about what is going on until the 11th hour and the 59th minute, if then. These Albany deals are being cut in secret negotiations that the public finds out about mainly through leaks and smoke signals.

Mr. Pataki deserved credit for sharing some details with the press, but even most town meetings or small city councils and county boards of supervisors have agendas that are set in advance, with items docketed and noticed to the public and the press in writing well in advance. Often, elsewhere, there are public committee hearings, extended floor debates, and dissenting votes, all of which are rare in Albany. Mr. Pataki may yet pull a rabbit out of the hat this week and announce some final significant accomplishments. We wish him luck, particularly on the charter school issue, where Mayor Bloomberg has been pushing hard. But if any deal is announced at the last minute as a fait accompli, it will be diminished by the knowledge that for all Mr. Pataki's accomplishments, opening up government in Albany for the public to see is one area where the secret last-minute negotiations never seem to result in a legislative breakthrough.