Thursday, March 13, 2008

1984: Year of Our Lording Over the Public

1984 was a seminal year for the NYS Legislature. They faced competition in the delivery of legislative information to special interest groups, such as lobbyists, worker's unions, associations, government agencies, etc. (This is not necessarily an evil. These groups have an equal right to information such as bill introductions, bill text, and subsequent bill movement as the public does). The competition came in the form of a company named Legi-Tech.


Legi-Tech (I'll avoid a history of the company at this point) desired to provide electronic legislative information to the same special interest groups the NYS Legislature sold their service (LRS) to. Thus, the Legislature faced competition in the market. How did the Legislature respond? In short, they used every resource at their disposal to eliminate the competition. In detail, they passed a law (Section 21, of Chapter 257 of the laws of 1984) that prohibited the sale of Legislative information by the Legislature to companies other than those that the Legislature runs. What other business can insure its survival with such efficiency and legalized monopolizing of the market of Public information? Legi-Tech sued the Legislature on the Constitutional grounds of breach of the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court decided with the NYS Legislature. An appeal was remanded, and eventually dropped. Perhaps Legi-Tech's approach was wrong. I will not address this issue at this juncture.


Chapter 257 of 1984 is on it's own an interesting document. The supporting memorandums from the Director of the Budget, the Attorney General and the Council to the State Education Department found in the bill jacket all fail to mention that the late Session bill amended Chapter 51 of 1984, the Legislature and Judiciary Budget. In fact, there is no notice (other than the actual section in the bill) that the legislation amends anything other than the Education Budget for the year. McKinney's published Session laws for that year strike section 21 and groups it under "appropriations." Well, there is no monetary value attached to the section, only a transfer of funds from the Computer Services and Development Fund to the Computer Services Fund.


The public tax dollar pays for the Computer Services fund, to the suggestion of $1.5 million in this year's proposed budget, but is unable to reap the real-time, or searching benefits of the monies. The appropriation is in addition to the revenue generated by the sale of subscriptions to the aforementioned special interests. Pretty good business if you can get it, but you can't... The Legislature makes sure of that, in deference to Chapter 257 of 1984. Well, I suppose the public can access the information if their willing to shell out a couple grand for a subscription. So that's tax dollars with a subscription piled on top. In my opinion, the Legislature is double dipping the willing market's pocket, while duping the public who contributes to the fund.


To summarize (I'm currently obligated to be elsewhere), in 1984 the NYS Legislature solidified its handle on the distribution of Legislative Information. They consciously hold information the public pays for from the public and sells it to special interests first. The NYS Legislature is shirking its responsibility to the public in favor of catering (while making a large buck) to the special interests. They are lording over the information they so arrogantly assume they have the right to hold from the public. The lords have spoken in a silent, back-door bill that takes money from the public, and gives them darkness in return.

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