What happens to State Senate reforms?

As the battle for the State Senate majority continues to rage in Albany, there are several storylines that give the overall picture perspective. One of the most interesting, I think, is one that Tom Golisano continues to point out as what he feels is the most important - a series of reforms passed by the "coalition" majority immediately upon taking over a week ago. Golisano emphasized these reforms at our Unshackle Upstate press conference last week, as well as in an op-ed in yesterday's New York Post.

Among the reforms the coalition passed:

• Majority Leader will have a term limit of six (6) years
• Senate committee chairs and ranking members will have term limits of eight (8) years
• Member items ("pork") and staffing resources will be more evenly apportioned, regardless of majority vs. minority
• All agenda items and voting records will be posted on the Senate web site
• State legislative sessions will be broadcast statewide
• New rules to allow a majority of Senate members to bring an item to the floor (rather than simply at the whim of the Majority Leader)

Today, reports from Albany say that Hirm Monserrate is actually now returning to the Democrats, which - if you're keeping score - would set up a 31-31 balance. Though there is also word that leadership posts have been offered to a number of senators - Bill Stachowski reportedly among them - to join the coalition. So no one's really quite sure where this will end up.

The interesting thing is - what happens to the reforms that were passed last week? I think few taxpayers in the state would argue that reforms of the way the Senate (and the Assembly, of course) does business are needed. So what happens if the Senate does, indeed "flip" back to the Democrats? Will they maintain (if the court determines that the vots were legal) the reforms, or move them again if necessary? I think they'd be hard-pressed not to.

Either way, it's an interesting way to get something done: either the "coalition" majority will be in effect going forward, or there will be heavy pressure on the Dems returning to power after a week to enact the reforms - among which will be better staff and pork distribution among the majority and minority.

Good government is good politics.