Politics on the Hudson

Rachel Leon, executive director of Common Cause, was shooting the breeze with reporters at the press room on the 3rd floor of the Capitol when she was hit with this query:

From the good-government groups’ perspective, what’s worse: lawmakers missing the April 1 budget deadline or making the deadline by using a “message of necessity’’—a legal tool to waive the customary 3-day waiting period between printing a bill and voting on it, a maneuver that allows little study of the bill before it’s passed?

“Messages of necessity,’’ she said, after hedging for a moment. A few days late is worth the extra scrutiny.