Bruno: Pare New York authorities
by Matt at May 26th, 2008
Now, this is music to my ears.
Public authority reform in New York has hit the wall. Changes instituted a couple of years ago require more accountability in budgeting. That’s progress.
But as the Thruway Authority showed this spring in defying public will on rate increases, authorities are essentially what they’ve always been: high-level patronage mills with enormous power and near-unassailable autonomy.
Actually, there is a way to assail them. Authorities are creations of the Legislature and they can be undone by same. It’s time to pare back the number of authorities and return their functions to something resembling democracy.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, meeting with the Editorial Board last week, said the 300 or so state and local authorities might reasonably be reduced to a number far smaller — 40, he suggested. His point was less about the right number and more about the profusion of powerful agencies about which the public knows next to nothing.
Of course, the ultimate question is what the collective will of the people is with regards to reforming the state’s bureaucracy. My guess is the idea is dead on arrival.
