Politics on the Hudson

   Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, said the Asssembly, Senate and Gov. David Paterson have reached an agreement to pass legislation that will reform the state’s public-authority system. Brodsky said that bill, plus one passed earlier this year that the governor has said he will sign, will change the culture of what has been called New York’s “shadow government” because of the power the 700 authorities have.

   The legislation will strengthen and expand the powers of the authorities budget office, including providing the power to issue subpoenas and report criminal activities; require that the state comptroller review any contracts of more than $1 million, and ones under $1 million upon request; create strict rules to control public-authority debt; limit the creation of authority subsidiaries; and implement whistle-blower protections for employees of authorities.

   Brodsky said public authorities are a “rogue” system and have been run like a  “Soviet-style bureaucracy.” Some of the larger ones include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Thruway Authority. 

   “This is the end of that era,” he said.

   A public-authority reform bill signed in 2005 by then-Gov. George Pataki  was about one-third of what he and other lawmakers wanted, Brodsky said.