Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady, Saratoga) is calling on legislative leaders to hold a vote tomorrow, January 30th, to select a new state comptroller to fill the remainder of Alan Hevesi's term.

"The comptroller is the state's chief fiscal officer and it behooves us to have that person in office at the beginning of budget negotiations and not a moment later," said Tedisco. Governor Spitzer is scheduled to release his Executive Budget on Wednesday, January 31.

Tedisco also said the process for selecting a replacement needs to be overhauled.

"The expert panel idea was a better alternative than the usual back room personal lobbying and deal cutting with legislative leaders but there were still problems. The best idea is to give the voters the last say, and if we ever have to go through this again, that is exactly what we should do," said Tedisco.

Tedisco will introduce legislation to amend the State Constitution, Article V, section 1, to provide that the governor fill a vacancy of the office of the comptroller and attorney general.

The amendment would require that in the case of a vacancy the governor would appoint an interim comptroller or attorney general who would only serve until the next general election. The person elected at such general election would then serve the remainder of the term. The office would then be up again in the same year as the next gubernatorial election.

To amend the State Constitution, two separately elected State Legislatures need to approve the legislation, and voters then need to approve it in a referendum.