in which the governor had only a casting vote. But the constitution
of 1821 abolished the council of appointment and
gave the choice of the principal state departmental officers to
the legislature, and the constitution of 1846 transferred the
choice of these officers from the legislature to the people, where
it has since remained. Under the constitution of 1821 a great
number of local officers were appointed by the governor with
the advice and consent of the Senate. The choice of most of
these was given to the people in 1846, but since then many new
state departments have been created, the heads of which are
usually appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of
the Senate. Under the present system, therefore, there is a
biennial election (in even-numbered years) of a governor, a
lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a state comptroller,
a state treasurer, an attorney-general and a state engineer and
surveyor; and the governor appoints, subject to the approval
of the Senate, a superintendent of public works, a superintendent
of state prisons, a superintendent of insurance, a superintendent
of banks, a commissioner of excise, a commissioner of agriculture,
a forest, fish and game commissioner, a commissioner
of health, a commissioner of labour, a state architect, a state
historian, a state librarian, two public service commissions,
a civil service commission, a board of charities, a commission
of prisons, a commission in lunacy, three tax commissioners
and several other boards and commissions. The governor has
the power, also, of filling vacancies in certain state offices and
on the benches of the supreme court and county courts, and
he may remove or suspend certain county and municipal officers
on charges.
The first state constitution gave the veto power to a council of revision composed of the governor, the chancellor and the judges of the supreme court, but since 1821 this power has been exercised by the governor alone; and in 1874 it was extended to separate items in appropriation bills. A bill or item of an appropriation bill that has been vetoed by the governor can become a law only with the approval of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the legislature. So long as the legislature is in session the governor is allowed ten days, besides Sundays, to consider a bill, and if he does not veto it within that time it becomes a law, but no bill becomes a law after the final adjournment of the legislature unless it is actually approved by the governor within thirty days after the adjournment. The governor’s power to grant reprieves, commutations or pardons is unrestricted by any board of pardons, but he is required to report to the legislature each case in which he exercises such power. A candidate for the office of governor or lieutenant-governor must be at least thirty years of age and must have resided within the state for five years next preceding his election. The governor’s salary is $10,000 a year, and the lieutenant-governor’s is $5000.
Legislature.—The legislative power is vested in a Senate of 50 members elected biennially and an Assembly of 150 members elected annually. Since 1846 both senators and assemblymen have been elected by single districts, and ever since the state government was established they have been apportioned according to population, but the present constitution limits the representation of New York City in the Senate by declaring that no county shall have more than one-third of all the senators nor any two adjoining counties more than one-half of them. The first and second state constitutions required that every senator should be a freeholder, but since 1846 no property qualifications have been prescribed for membership in either house; the only persons disqualified are those who at the time of the election or within one hundred days before the election were members of Congress, civil or military officers under the United States, or officers under any city government. The constitution of 1846 limited the pay of members of both houses to three dollars a day and to three hundred dollars for any one session (except in impeachment proceedings) besides an allowance for travelling expenses, but since an amendment of 1874 they have been paid $1500 a year and ten cents a mile for travelling expenses.
The legislature meets in annual sessions, beginning in January. Money bills may originate in either house, but at the final vote on such a bill in either house three-fifths of the members elected to that house must be present and the yeas and nays must be recorded; bills entailing appropriations for local or private purposes must receive a two-thirds majority to pass. The legislature appoints the board of regents of the University of the State of New York. To decrease the evil of lobbying a law was enacted in 1906 which requires that every person employed to promote or oppose the passage of any bill shall file in the office of the secretary of state a written statement showing who has employed him and describing the legislation in respect of which his services are to be rendered; the law also requires the employers of lobbyists to file in the same office within two months after the adjournment of the legislature an itemized statement of all their lobbying expenses, and forbids the employment of a lobbyist for a contingent fee.
Judiciary.—At the close of the colonial era there were a court of chancery, a supreme court, circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer which were held in the several counties by the justices of the supreme court, a court of common pleas and a court of sessions in each county, and courts held by justices of the peace in the several towns. This system, with the addition of the Senate, the chancellor and the justices of the supreme court occasionally sitting as a court for the correction of errors, was retained with only slight changes until 1846. But the new constitution of that year substituted a court of appeals for the court of errors, merged the court of chancery into the supreme court, established in each county a new county court composed of a single judge, and, taking the appointment of judges from the governor, gave the election of them to the people. Some further alterations in the constitution affecting the courts were made in 1869, 1879, 1888, 1894, 1899 and 1909, and the system as at present constituted comprises a supreme court of ninety-seven justices, an appellate division of the same, a court of appeals, a court of claims and local courts. The highest judicial court in the state is not, as in most states of the Union, the supreme court, but the court of appeals. This court consists of a chief judge and six associate judges elected from the state at large for a term of fourteen years. Its jurisdiction is limited, except where judgment is of death, to a review of questions of law. Vacancies are temporarily filled from among the justices of the supreme court by the governor. To expedite business, at the request of the court, the governor may designate not more than four justices of the supreme court to act temporarily as additional associate judges of the court of appeals. The salary of the chief judge is $14,200, of the associate judges $13,700 a year.
The ninety-seven justices of the supreme court are elected for fourteen years from the nine districts into which the state is divided. Of these thirty are chosen in the first district (New York county) and seventeen in the second district (Long Island and Staten Island). The jurisdiction of each justice extends over the entire state. Vacancies are temporarily filled by the governor. The supreme court has general jurisdiction in law and equity, including all actions both civil and criminal. The salary of the justices in the first district and in Kings county of the second district is $17,500 a year; in the remainder of the second district it is $16,300 a year; in the other districts it is $10,000 a year. The state is divided into four departments for each of which there is an Appellate Division consisting of seven justices in the first department (county of New York) and five in each of the others. The justices and presiding justice are designated from among the justices of the supreme court by the governor; the presiding justice and a majority of the other justices of each department must be residents of the department.
The court of claims consists of three judges, one presiding, appointed by the governor for a term of six years. It has jurisdiction to hear and determine private claims against the state.
The local judiciary includes the usual county and city judges, county surrogates and justices of the peace. New York City (q.v.) has an extensive judiciary system of its own.
Local Government.—The state is divided into sixty-one counties, each (unless wholly included in a city) having a county board of supervisors elected for two years, one from every town or city ward. This board has certain administrative and legislative powers, such as the care of county property, the borrowing of money for the erection of county buildings, the fixing of the salary of the county treasurer and of other county officers, the levying of county taxes and the division of the county into assembly districts and school commissioners’ districts. Other county officers are a county judge and a county surrogate elected for a term of six years, a treasurer, a clerk, a district attorney, a sheriff and from one to four coroners elected for a term of three years. Cities are of three classes: (1) those having a population of 175,000 or more; (2) those having a population between 50,000 and 175,000; and (3) those whose population is less than 50,000; the classification is according to the latest state enumeration.
