The Senate passed one of the most restrictive lobbying reform bills in nation, that virtually banned gifts from lobbyists to Senators. Senate Majority members voluntarily abide by the restrictions despite the Assembly’s refusal to pass the Senate reform bill.

      Created legislative Budget Conference Committees to resolve budget issues. Majority and Minority legislators from both houses debate budget issues in public.

    Also established use of legislative conference committees to negotiate differences between similar bills passed by both houses. Conference committees have successfully resolved issues such as required 48 maternity hospital stay; small cities school budget voting and establishing a pesticide use registry to gather information for breast cancer research.

    Developed legislative expenditure reports that detail spending by legislators and are distributed publicly twice a year. Live broadcast of Senate sessions available on Senate web site; actual debate of all Senate sessions can now be seen and heard as it occurs.

    Senate run in business like fashion using modern management practices and ended tradition of holding all-night Senate sessions.

                                    BUDGET   REFORM

    I have championed proposals to reform the State budget process to ensure passage of a new budget before the April 1st deadline. Various proposals would have required early submission by the Governor; strict deadlines for agreement on revenues -- including binding arbitration by the State Comptroller when no agreement is in place; and having the previous year’s budget take effect is no new budget is in place by April 1st.

     One of the earliest proposals, which passed the Senate for several years starting in
1999, is outlined here.

Another proposal to end late budgets  was defeated by the voters in 2005,  and was the object of great misunderstanding.  I believe its provisions would end late budgets and provide for greater openness and transparancy in the budget-formation process.  For three out of the last four years, when the budget Conference Committee process has taken place, I have carried out my responsibility of the Senate's Health Budgets Subcommittee Chair by presiding, along with my counterpart in the Assembly, over an open and public process. Negotiations and discussions take place in front of packed auditoriums, TV cameras and radio microphones. The recent year the process was the traditional closed negotiating meetings demonstrated the drawbacks of such a system.

All this would  have been embodied in the failed constitutional amendment. You can
read a scholar's analysis of the measure here