Court Asked to Approve Withholding N.Y. Senate Pay

Don't you just love it when adults start acting like 4 year olds on a playground?

New York Governor David Paterson and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asked a state court today for permission to withhold Senate pay as an impasse over control of the chamber entered its 29th day.

DiNapoli’s office filed a request in state Supreme Court in Albany seeking a ruling on whether the executive branch can halt lawmakers’ paychecks, Paterson’s spokesman Morgan Hook said. Annual base pay for senators is $79,500, plus travel expenses.

“The governor’s position is that they have abdicated their responsibility,” Marissa Shorenstein, another Paterson spokesman, said yesterday. “We’re asking for a direct ruling on whether it’s right or wrong for them to get paid.”

No hearing date has been set, according to Hook.

The Senate met for less than five minutes in a special session Paterson ordered and adjourned without considering or voting upon legislation. It has been locked in a stalemate since June 8, when two Democrats joined with Republicans to wrest control of the chamber from the Democrats, who outnumbered Republicans 32-30.

The Senate, now tied 31 to 31 after one of the Democrats returned to the fold, has met every day since the U.S. Independence Day weekend after Paterson called them into a series of special sessions.

A pay freeze would follow previous moves by Paterson and DiNapoli withholding 250 vouchers submitted by legislators totaling $560,000 in travel and other expenses and the governor’s call for DiNapoli to block direct deposit of their paychecks.

“I don’t think it’s within his constitutional rights to hold pay,” Senator Jeffrey Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx, said following a three-minute Senate meeting late yesterday. “The best thing the governor can do is get us to negotiate.”

Mr. Klein, why does the governor have to do anything to "get you to negotiate" you lazy, worthless sack? Isn't that your job? You should all be fired, barred from the capital and have your vouchers denied for abandoning your administrative duties. The state would be better served by rounding up a bunch of people out of the unemployment line to take your places. They would certainly have more sense.

These inept bureaucrats have no concept of middle class Americans. What would your boss do if you showed up for work for 3 minutes, did nothing and then left. What if you defied him or her to not pay you? Do you think your travel expenses would be paid? Your meal tickets? Don't you have utter contempt for these politicians? Why do we let them get away with this crap?Speak up!