ABSTRACT
The legislative process in Albany flows, like a deep river, on two levels. Below the surface there is a steady stream of relatively trivial legislative activity: crafting laws to bring New York into compliance with new federal guidelines, to allow local governments to merge, or to take account of a new medical procedure. These laws are trivial only in the sense that they seldom attract the attention of the media, the general public, or even most members of the legislature. They are important, in the cases cited, to those who live in the affected communities or need the new medical procedure. A lot of what happens in Albany, in Washington, or in most state capitals is this kind of ordinary, routine business. Closer to the surface of the legislative river are bigger, more controversial issues that may even be covered on the nightly news: fights over the budget, immigration, and rent control. This stream of legislation in New York concerns a broader public and evokes a different kind of legislative politics, a flow that is far more centralized, usually more visible, and frequently more partisan than that which runs at the lower depths.
