Constitutional Convention, 1915

The New York State Constitution of 1894 (Article 14, Section 2) required the submission in 1916 to voters of the question of whether to hold a constitutional convention to revise and amend the Constitution. The Legislature subsequently voted (Laws of 1913, Chapter 819) to move up this election to April 7, 1914. In this election, the state's voters agreed to hold a constitutional convention in 1915. In preparation for this Convention, the Legislature established a Constitutional Convention Commission (Laws of 1914, Chapter 261). This Commission, working with the New York State Department of Efficiency and Economy and the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, collected information on and analyzed the functions and organization of New York State government. Their results were compiled in a comprehensive report and appraisal of state government, and a manual of constitutional history and state government procedures was produced for the Convention delegates. This work represented the most extensive preparation ever done for any state constitutional convention in the country. The Convention was held in Albany from April 6 to September 10, 1915. 168 delegates took part in the proceedings. The delegates had been elected by the state's voters in the 1915 general election; three delegates were from each Senate District and fifteen served as at-large delegates. Some of the most prominent men in the state, including Alfred E. Smith, Robert W. Wagner, Elihu Root, and Henry L. Stimson, were among the 116 Republicans and 52 Democrats. The delegates also included corporate and constitutional lawyers, college presidents, physicans, journalists, and representatives of a wide variety of other professions and businesses. Root, a former Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and United States Senator, was chosen President of the Convention. Throughout the Convention, delegates discussed an extremely broad range of important topics in committee meetings, hearings, and floor debates. The result of these efforts was a proposed new constitution. The most significant changes proposed dealt with the consolidation of state government departments, the role of the executive in the budget process, and procedures to streamline state financing. The bulk of the amendments were aimed at a more efficient centralized administration to deal with new responsibilities of state government. The proposed changes included: consolidating over 100 state government boards and commissions into 17 departments; instituting the executive budget process; giving the governor power of appointment and removal of all executive officers except the Attorney General and Comptroller (the short ballot amendment); establishing a uniform tax system throughout the state; requiring the use of serial bonds to finance long-term state projects; creating new state departments of Conservation and Labor/Industry; raising salaries of the governor and the legislature; providing for home rule for cities; and improving the administration of the state's justice system and increasing the number of appeals judges. The proposed Constitution that included these and other amendments was submitted to the state's voters as the general election on November 2, 1915 (Laws of 1915, Chapter 668 and Resolution of the Convention). This proposed constitution was voted down, leaving in force the existing 1894 Constitution to which 33 amendments were added. In large part the Constitution was voted down because it was submitted for approval as a whole document rather than as single amendments or groups of amendments. Not all sections of the proposed document were acceptable to all voters. Most interest groups in the state had strong objections to one or more new amendments and therefore did not vote in favor of the document. If individual amendments had been placed before voters, it is likely that many would have passed. The majority of these amendments, in fact, were subsequently approved by voters in elections over the next twenty years. In 1926-27, for example, voters approved two amendments that consolidated state government departments, established the executive budget, and instituted the short ballot. While the 1915 Constitution was not approved when it was submitted to voters, it is credited with bringing to the public many of the needed reforms in state government administration that were subsequently adopted in New York and elsewhere in the Country.