Sweetener hard to swallow.(Viewpoint)

Crain's New York Business, August, 2004 by Townsend, Alair

Byline: Alair Townsend "This kind of bill is one that only passes in the dead of night.'' So wrote a former state legislator who knows how Albany works. The item in question is a pension sweetener for certain government retirees. It's a giveaway. It should never be passed. But it has momentum and could slip through with almost no one noticing.

The legislators are back in Albany to deal with the disastrously late state budget. There will be late nights and plenty of darkness. No one will have time to read what they are voting for. There will be frantic attempts to tuck large and small preferential items into the massive budget bills. In the light of day, we'll find legislators have included pork and goodies of all sorts. That's the way it works in Albany....

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