When you go to vote November 4th, there will be a referendum hiding over on the right side. "Shall there be a convention to amend the constitution and revise the same?" This seemingly innocuous issue could actually be a serious threat to some of the liberties we enjoy under the current NYS constitution.

 

The referendum to have a constitutional convention is automatic: it comes up every twenty years without anyone needing to raise the issue. However, it can be held at any time with the approval of both houses of the New York State legislature. The system of picking delegates is based on the State Senate districts; three delegates are elected per district, with fifteen at-large delegates.

 

There are many reasons why one might want to amend the NYS constitution, but a more deliberative process already exists in the legislature. In a New York State Constitutional Convention, everything in the constitution is on the table all at once. Although this "clean sweep" mentality may have a visceral appeal, it could cause disaster. Among the provisions in the current constitution we might lose by a convention are the "forever wild" clause that protects the Adirondacks from development, Article 17, which requires the government to provide for the poor, a woman's right to choose, workers' rights to organize, the NYS Board of Regents, and school financing.

 

NYC ADA opposes a Constitutional Convention, for two reasons. First, the system of picking delegates is flawed, as it is based on the highly gerrymandered State Senate districts, with its own campaigning process, working in favor of local candidates who can put up the money to run a campaign in order to push their agenda. Wealthy entrepreneurs and Republican politicians would be elected to most of the delegate seats. Governor Cuomo's Commission on Constitutional Revision ('93-'94) recommended reforms to the delegate selection process, but these were not put into place.

 

Secondly, the time is not right. Like it or not, we are experiencing a recession of progressivism, and trying to hold a convention in a Pataki-Bruno dominated state could be quite dangerous. The delegate selection process practically insures that there would be a Republican-dominated Convention; though the at-large delegates might be Democratic, at- large delegates could well be thrown out in court as unconstitutional.

 

Governor George Pataki and Senator Alfonse D' Amato have recently made public statements supporting a Constitutional Convention. We, however, join the NYS AFL-CIO, the NYS NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the NYS Council of Senior Citizens, the Sierra Club, and dozens of unions and advocacy groups in calling for a 'NO' vote on the referendum to hold a constitutional convention.

 

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