March 29, 2007

Civics lesson comes true in budget

I proposed this as a civics lesson for students studying New York State government:

Legislators provide a public face for the leadership in their district, explaining to the district why what the leadership has decided to do must be right for the district. Legislators also look for projects that the leadership can approve to demonstrate how valuable the leadership is to the district.

Tonight I saw it echoed in the New York Times Empire Zone blog's telling of the budget story:

But the governor shared almost no details* about what deals had been struck, explaining that it would be improper to do so until Mr. Silver and Mr. Bruno had had a chance to explain the deals to their respective flocks, who would then be able to explain it to the rest of us during public conference committees.

Because otherwise, you see, it would look as though the whole thing had been negotiated behind closed doors and then handed down to the lawmakers as a fait accomplit.

Which is what actually happened.

It might be funny, if it wasn't so depressing.

Posted by simon at March 29, 2007 8:44 PM in
Note on photos