The changes in the Senate will have at least one important and immediate consequence: sweeping rule reform.

Here is a brief overview:

- The majority leader has a six-year term limit.

- Eight-year terms for committee chairs and rankers.

- No proxy voting, no ayes without recommendation (only in Albany would having to show up to vote pass for reform!).

- Equitable access to Senate supplies, print and media production, administrative services, and mailing.

- Staffing will be proportional, but will never be less than 33 percent for the minority.

- Member items will be divided evenly.

- All procedural votes require a majority only of members present.

- Debate may exceed four hours on budget bills.

Read some more about the rules reform HERE and HERE.

Today, a bipartisan group of Senators set aside party politics to elect new leadership and pass a sweeping series of rules reforms.

RNY Founder Tom Golisano said:  “This is a great day for Responsible New York. The Brennan Center came out with a report several years ago that said that this was a dysfunctional government - in fact the most dysfunctional one in the country.

I think today a bold step was made to take away the nucleus of that report and move us towards effective Democracy…Some of the reforms that were passed today are historic nobody ever thought they would happen in New York State. These two guys came together they made the agreement and said, ‘We can get this done.’

It’s time to care more about the state than we do about ourselves.

In addition to the terrible decisions that Albany makes, decisions that drive people out of New York, there’s more going on in Albany.  Unfortunately, it’s even worse than the usual dysfunction.

Bill Hammond, in the Daily News, reminds us that 18 state elected officials have faced charges since 2003.

Hammond writes: “Why do so many city pols get caught up in crime? Probably because they occupy low-profile offices in a Legislature . . . and spend their days making obscure decisions that most New Yorkers don’t follow closely. The result: incumbency protection that breeds an anything-goes attitude.”

“But the most important factor is Albany’s ridiculously lax enforcement of basic ethical rules.” Hammond concludes.

Read the whole article: Rotten Apples in a Bad Barrel.

PS: That group doesn’t include former Governor Spitzer who escaped charges for his “indiscretions.”

From Jim Lawrence, Editor of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: “The exodus of New Yorkers to states with relatively low taxes such as Florida is one reason the Editorial Board on Sunday will kickoff a stepped up, yearlong campaign to help get state residents out of “Tax Hell.” New York taxes are among the highest on Earth.”

Read more about the campaign HERE. Or go directly to the Fed Up With Albany Page HERE.

A Siena Research Institute study found that 11 percent of New Yorkers will  move unless conditions improve and another 10 percent say they would like to move out “as quickly as I can.”

The same poll found a whopping 53 percent believe the state is moving in the wrong direction and only 33 percent saying our state is headed in the right direction.

Are you thinking of moving?  Already left?  Tell us about it in the comments section.

See the polling HERE or read more about the poll HERE or

[New York State's] budget has risen 6 percent per year since 1999, more than double the rate of inflation. Medicaid spending is out of control and any attempt to revamp it – see Gov. David Paterson’s attempt and how quickly the health care union savaged him – has failed, thanks to all sorts of special interests.

Now Golisano leaves. It’s time New York takes the threat of losing affluent New Yorkers seriously. We’ve believed, and continue to argue, that wealthier residents should pay their share in taxes and that certain loopholes should be closed to ensure that happens.

But there is a limit to how much anyone can pay, and New York has reached that limit.

Golisano said he would continue his charitable endeavors in western New York.

Other philanthropists may not be as nice.

Read the entire editorial HERE.

From the Buffalo News Editorial Page.

The New York State Legislature is a fetid and self-serving organization that does the bidding of its masters, unions and trial lawyers prominent among them. And it has walled itself off from voters’ predictable anger through an accretion of artifices that make it all but impossible for challengers to unseat incumbents. It’s the endless political game in Albany.

With Albany the way it is, there is no reason to believe it even wants to [compete with Florida]. It will keep spending exorbitantly, paying tribute to its masters in the unions and law offices, until there are too few taxpayers left to bankroll its corruption.

There ought to be a law.

Read the whole thing HERE

Another casualty of Albany’s insatiable appetite for taxes is Science First, a small, family owned company in Buffalo.

The Buffalo News says this:

After lifetimes in the Buffalo area, Bell and her two sons will move to northern Florida by December.  They are taking their company and its 21 jobs with them.

Nathaniel Bell, who’s grandfather started the company said: “I personally feel we are being driven out of the state, that they are effectively saying they don’t want us here anymore. It makes me mad.”

The Bells want to be in upstate but the taxes left them with no economically viable choice.

After years of making a go of it in Buffalo, the expense of doing business in this state, increasingly unaffordable over the years, was now a clear obstacle to growth plans.

The decision behind her, she still admits to regrets and anger —aimed mostly at the state and its financial decisions that affect businesses like Science First. “We would have never moved,” Nancy Bell said.

Read the whole story HERE.

In an interview on Albany’s Talk 1300, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said, ”Reduce the size of government. It’s not a line in a speech; it has to be an actuality . . . That’s what you hear from the Golisanos of the world.”

Cuomo continued, “We have to talk about cutting taxes, reducing cost. Not just capping growth. Actually reducing the costs, and it’s possible.” 

Cuomo cited Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy who’s reaction to this economic turmoil was to cut his budget by 5 percent.

Cuomo’s saying the right things.  Duffy is doing the right things.  And it’s a start.

Do you know of any other elected officials who are saying or doing the right things?  Let us know on the comments page.

 You can read more about Cuomo’s interview HERE.

Rush Limbaugh offers his take HERE.  Former statewide candidate John Faso says: “Tom Golisano’s departure is one very large canary in the coalmine.  Will New York finally get the message?” HERE.

Some other takes from: BuffaloRising HERE, On the Wilder Side HERE and Economic Freedom HERE, Michelle Malkin HERE and Stop Wasting Money HERE.

But we want to hear your take!  Tell us in the comments section.