Cloudy forecast for Sunshine Week
Starting today and through Saturday is Sunshine Week, a nationwide annual occurrence when open government advocates and the press push for greater transparency in how the public’s business is conducted. Don’t hope for much of that in Albany, where lip service has traditionally been the only action in town, as the state Senate and Assembly both promote wonderful measures — but not jointly — meaning nothing is enacted into law. It’s a clever trick that has been called out this year by a coalition of watchdog groups.
Why not pass the same bills together improving the state Freedom of Information Law, the Open Meetings Law and disclosure requirements for public officials and candidates and send them to the governor for her signature? What a novel idea. Or could it be that lawmakers, sitting happy on their fat new salaries of $142,000, by far the highest in the nation (No. 2 California is $122,694 and they have term limits) will continue to play games between the two chambers?
Unlike many Albany mysteries that only get resolved when the budget passes, New Yorkers will know the answer when Sunshine Week ends on Saturday and overcast days resume.
The timing of Sunshine Week is tied to the March 16 birthday of James Madison, father of the Constitution, even though the calendar read March 5 when Mrs. Madison delivered her son. The double dates are because when James was a baby, the British colonies skipped 11 days in switching to the modern Gregorian calendar from the old Roman Julian calendar, a change that makes last night’s daylight saving time adjustment seem like nothing.
We don’t know what old Jim thought about open government considering that the 1787 Constitutional Convention met entirely in secret session in Philly and the new U.S. Senate also conducted itself without any public viewing for its first five years. But Madison has been dead and buried for 187 years and Americans today rightly expect government to be fully accountable. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie should make Sunshine Week mean something real.