Pay Raise, DNA & Violent Videos Debated In Albany

[steven]

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - State leaders say a pay raise for legislators is alive, violent video games are under fire, and capital punishment for cop killers is dead in the last four weeks of the 2007 legislative session.
The possibility that all felons would have to submit a DNA sample to the state database is also likely to pass, and Governor Eliot Spitzer says a deal is close on Wicks law reform, changing the number of public construction projects that would have to be bid on by several companies.
And violent video games are in the crosshairs, as the state winds up its legislative session for the summer.
Pay Raise: Legislators have earned the same pay for the last eight years. Governor Eliot Spitzer has refused to sign off on raises unless lawmakers agree to change the state’s campaign finance reform system. Dicusssion on finance reform continues.
DNA:The debate in recent days has yielded competing proposals: one to expand the DNA database, another to do so only as part of a broad bill to protect victims.
Violent Videos: A deal in the works in Albany is taking aim at computer-generated crackhead killers and video vixens.
Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer offered a proposal in April to restrict the distribution of extremely violent and sexually explicit video games to youths. Today, several versions of bills are in the Republican-led Senate and Democrat-led Assembly.
There are more than a dozen bills. They range from a ban, to taxing the videos more, to creating parental controls, to creating an advisory council to recommend action, to requiring warnings that the games could lead to epileptic seizures.

http://www.wben.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=07588

[speaker]

This sure looks to me like they're 'packing' the package--putting their own agenda in with popular proposals. A very Washington-like action, slipping their own selfish reasons with other desirable ones.

If they can't get along on the pay they bring home, how do they expect the rest of us to do it?