Deep South Radio

“This is like Area 51,” says Assembly staffer Adam Kramer, waving his arm toward the floor-to-ceiling stacks of gray metal cubbies that hold every bill printed by the New York Assembly this year. “You may not find any aliens in there, but you may find some pretty bad legislation.”

But it’s not the content that Kramer’s boss, Republican Assembly Member Jim Tedisco, is crusading against, rather the printing process itself. He has introduced two bills designed to force the Legislature to go paperless, arguing that millions of dollars are wasted every year on superfluous legislation. In the Assembly document room, Kramer has more than a few examples he can point to.

“You know, the state spent money to print a bill to make the cupcake the official children’s snack of New York,” he said.

Depending on whom you ask, the cupcake bill, which was tabled three years ago, cost the taxpayers somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 to $2,200, including the cost of personnel associated with printing it.

The numbers vary because there is little agreement between the minority and majority parties in both houses on the actual amount. Bill printing is mandated in the state constitution and is estimated to cost about $8 million a year in printer maintenance, ink, paper and toner, according to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Last year, for example, the state printed more than 11,700 bills, about a tenth of which were passed into law. That is more than twice as many bills printed than in Illinois or California.

In his office, Tedisco fake-weight-lifts two white dictionary-thick digests, the bound 500-page volume that all 212 legislators and their aides receive at the beginning of every week. “Having one of these legislative digests printed after the first week is like you or I every week getting a telephone book placed on our front porch because five people moved into our neighborhood,” he says.

Assembly Democrats dispute Tedisco’s cost analysis. They estimate the total costs of printing in the Legislature at approximately $400,000. That figure was arrived at by multiplying the cost of each piece of
paper ($0.02) by the number of pages printed each year (12 million).

“Recognizing that technology is evolving, many members have proposals to make changes, including moving to a more paperless environment,” said Assembly Democratic spokesperson Mike Whyland, who noted that a steering committee is currently investigating the process.

Tedisco scoffs at that figure, which doesn’t take into account the money both houses spend on paper and associated printing costs, such as ink, toner and salaries for staff whose jobs are specifically tied to bill printing.

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem to be pooh-poohing this,” Tedisco said. “Even if I used the lowest possible savings, it’s like the old saying: ‘A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.’”

Fifteen states and the U.S. Congress have gone digital, Tedisco says, brandishing his BlackBerry like a wand. Tedisco’s plan calls for all legislators to read bills on e-readers, laptops or iPads.

A Kindle (price tag: $139) would be even cheaper. Casual math tallies the total cost of buying iPads for all 212 legislators at $84,588. That’s still less than a quarter of the lowest estimate of what the state spends on printing every year, according to Democrats.

Some senators already have such devices. Sen. Tom Libous, a sponsor of the bill, can often be seen from the Senate gallery with his iPad, coaching other senators on how to use the device or reading news clips while the Democratic conference members speak on the floor.

Tedisco’s plan also calls on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to convene a volunteer task force of tech employees from Google, Facebook or Xerox—a so-called “geek squad” that could audit the state’s paper usage. A spokesperson for Cuomo declined to comment.

Tedisco’s bill joins two other paper-reduction plans sponsored by Assembly members. One, proposed by Democrat Assembly Member Sandy Galef, would
allow for bills on members’ desks to be considered “printed” even if they’re being read off a laptop.

Another plan, sponsored by Republican Assembly Member Will Barclay, would limit the number of bills each legislator is allowed to propose per session to 125 in the Senate and 50 in the Assembly. Tedisco said he did not care if his bill were co-opted by the
Assembly majority and his name taken off, so long as it passed.

The humor in all this was not lost on him.

“The irony is,” he said, “I have to do a bill and have the whole thing printed to get rid of printing bills.”