DMI 2001—2005 NYS Legislative Scorecard

executive summary

Most New Yorkers aim to achieve and hold onto the staples of a middle-class standard of living: the opportunity to work hard at a job that pays enough to support a family, the chance to own a home, access to affordable health care, the ability to send your children to good schools and help them go to college, and finally the security to look forward to a dignified retirement.

A strong middle class is critical to New York State, contributing to economic growth and social stability. The middle class works, pays taxes and spends money that keeps the economy humming. The growth of the state’s middle class is an indication that wealth and opportunities are broadly available to the majority of New Yorkers. But when even those who work hard are unable to attain a middle-class standard of living, the state’s overall prosperity is jeopardized.

The New York State legislature has been called the most dysfunctional in the nation, but it is far from powerless. Although the work of reforming the legislative process remains unfinished, the state Senate and Assembly continue to make substantive decisions that deeply impact New Yorkers’ abilities to work their way into the middle class and stay there. For this reason, we believe it’s important to hold legislators accountable now for their votes to support and expand—or undermine and obstruct—the state’s middle class and aspiring middle class.

In the 2001—2005 New York State Legislative Scorecard, we grade individual legislators—as well as the Senate and Assembly as a whole and each of the major parties—on their votes over the past five years on bills with the potential to impact the state’s middle class.

We find that between 2001 and 2005, the New York State Senate and Assembly acted in fits and starts, helping the poorest of working New Yorkers begin to move toward the middle class with an increase in the minimum wage, while at the same time weakening the laws that keep housing affordable in New York City and the suburbs. On some issues of intense concern for middle-class New Yorkers, like the outsourcing of jobs beyond the state, the extraordinary cost of health insurance and the state’s compliance with the court mandate in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, very little was accomplished at all. In many cases, the New York State Legislature harmed the middle class more by its inaction than by the legislation it passed.

MAIN FINDINGS

• Assembly Democrats did the best overall, earning an A- grade for their support of the middle class. 99 percent of Assembly Democrats passed, but only six percent earned perfect scores.

• Assembly Republicans got a C grade overall. Half of Assembly Republicans got a C or better and half earned less than a C.

• Senate Republicans did the worst, collectively earning a D- for their votes against the interests of middle-class New Yorkers. 39 percent of Senate Republicans failed completely and none earned a grade of C or better.

• Senate Democrats earned a B grade overall and had the highest proportion of perfect scores, with 22 percent of Senate Democrats earning a score of 100 percent.

• In total, ten legislators earned a perfect score: Senators Tom Duane, Liz Krueger, John Sampson, Eric Schneiderman, and Toby Ann Stavisky; and Assembymembers Darrel Aubertine, Vivian Cook, Anthony Seminerio, Scott Stringer and Mark Weprin.

• Assemblyman Tom Alfano stood out as the highest-scoring Republican, earning an A- for his support of New York’s middle class.

LOOKING TO 2006:

The state legislature faces a host of choices critical to the middle class in the year to come.
Bills that would support the state’s middle class, like the State Financial Incentive Protection Act and the Families in the Workplace Act, have been reintroduced this year and deserve passage by both houses. The legislature must also respond to Governor Pataki’s budget proposals, from illogical tax incentives to punishing tuition increases at the state’s public universities. A range of education, housing, taxation, health care, consumer and workplace issues of importance to the middle class will also be up for consideration.

IN CONCLUSION:

We hope that the 2001—2005 New York State Legislative Scorecard will be a tool to evaluate New York’s Senate and Assembly and to point those concerned about the future of the middle class in the Empire State in the right direction on key pieces of legislation. While by no means naïve about Albany’s severely dysfunctional legislative process, we believe that the examination of substantive issues will help to remind New Yorkers why it matters that we have an effective legislative process in the first place. By the same token, we believe that better policy can be generated when New Yorkers know how their representatives voted on the issues most important to them and when state legislators know that their constituents are watching.