Paterson's reasonable request

"Absent passage of a responsible budget," Gov. Paterson said in a press release today, he "will call on State lawmakers to voluntarily begin five-day sessions next week." Working five days a week does not seem like an excessive burden. That's what the legislative calendar calls for in the last week of March, the idea being they should be hammering out a budget then by the April 1 constitutional deadline. Trouble is, they always miss that deadline, and go back to three days of session a week for April and May, then two four-day weeks in June before adjourning for the rest of the year, unless called back into special session. Pseudo-sophisticated legislators say what's the point of sticking around when they have nothing to do with the budget negotiations? But that's only the case because the Democratic majorities in both houses allow their leaders to flout the budget reform law of 2007 by failing to use conference committees and otherwise involve the rank and file.