20 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2017 20 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 20 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
NEWS
Tweaking New York
Delegates are sworn in at the start of the 1967 constitutional convention, the last called by voters. The convention’s proposed rewrites of the
constitution were handily rejected by voters.
Voters have
the option
of calling a
constitutional
convention
every two
decades. This
could be the
year they give it
another try.
By SPENCER RUMSEY
Every 20 years, New Yorkers get the
chance to decide whether they want
a constitutional convention to overhaul
or amend the state’s governing
document, which was adopted in
1894 and has not been significantly
tweaked since 1938.
Voters have not thought too much
of the idea for the past 50 years,
when the last convention offered
up a handful of amendments that
voters then handily rejected at the
polls.
But things might be different when
the measure appears on the ballot
this November. Albany’s repeated
corruption scandals have stirred up
the good-government crowd, and
dozens of special interest groups have
come to believe that sidestepping
the Legislature is the only way their
measures will ever be considered.
A growing group of federalists have
even bigger ambitions: Empowering
the state to create its own clean
air and labor regulations, even as
federal protections wilt in Washington.
Poll position
The process starts this Nov. 7, when
voters will be asked to approve or
reject the convention. If it’s greenlighted,
voters would next year
choose 204 delegates, or three people
from each of the state’s 63 state
senate districts plus 15 statewide
seats.
They would convene the convention
in the spring of 2019, establish
rules and then get about revising
the state’s governing document,
which currently runs 50,000 words,
or seven times longer than the U.S.
Constitution. The amended articles
would then be put before voters at
the next general election.
Groups interested in campaign
finance reform, legalizing marijuana
and generally fixing Albany are
proponents, loosely collected under
the umbrella of the Committee
for a Constitutional Convention.
It includes many of New York’s
bar associations – although not
the Nassau County bar group –
and reform-minded-civic groups
like Common Cause and Citizens
Union.
The fix is not in
“Our state government is broken,”
declared Dick Dadey, executive
director of Citizens Union, which
is based in New York City. “What
have our state legislators done to
combat money in politics? They
have proven themselves incapable
of making the kind of progress that
is necessary to restore voters’ trust
in our government and faith in how
our democracy functions.”
The CCC had raised $67,000 as of
this writing, mostly from individual
donors.