Is the NY Senate completely out of order? (New York, Yonkers: how much, salaries)

[Canerican]

With the tie that we now have, it seems like it is totally dysfunctional. The Republicans want binding arbitration, the Democrats want power sharing, which they could use to ram all the Governor's bills through, and then the GOP bills would all get vetoed.

To me it seems easy, there is no agreement, go for arbitration... but obviously for the Senators whose salaries we pay, that is too complex.

[cheese9988]

Maybe at the present time, I am crossing my fingers for rep control.

I would say it has gotton out of control. The dems have had control for too long. I usually agree more with a democrat than a republican, but we really need republican control of the state for once, just to bring the government down a few notches. At certain times, like during a recession I like democrats and big government, but I don't think it should go on for forty years. They almost always raise taxes and makes us less competetive.

[juppiter]

cheese, Republicans ran the Senate for forty years. Democrats ran it for less than a year and changed nothing. If the Republicans ran it again nothing would change.

Instead, I agree with Rudy Giuliani's opinion. New York's government in its present structure DOES NOT work. We need a constitutional convention that would design a completely new legislature. Maybe follow Nebraska's model and have a unicameral, non-partisan body.

[cheese9988]

Depends on which branch your talking about, the assembly has for the most part been dem for over 40 years, the senate for the most part rep.

I agree with you fully, we need to start fresh with a new NYS government.

[Canerican]

The once thing that bugs me is that NYC does not have anything in common with the rest of the state, I really do think that we ought to consider making NYC/LI/Yonkers a separate district.

NYC would have a 100% Democrat controlled legislature, the rest of NY would probably be 65% Republican, we would have a more representative government. I could potentially see that happening in my lifetime, and I think it would be a very good thing.

[j groth]

Amen

[juppiter]

LI would never group itself with NYC though. They hate NYC even more than Upstate does. They don't realize how much they depend on NYC.

[newyorkborn&raised]

I agree, upstate New York would not be able to survive without the city (I live upstate). I understand how most people upstate hates the city, but also you can not lump LI, and Westchester into NYC. They are too different of places with different needs. I do not think New York should ever divide itself.