Legislators obliged this request.
In principle, I find nothing wrong here: democracy is not government by public opinion poll, and legislators have an obligation to do what is right.
A state ethics panel voted Thursday to impose $5,000 in fines on Capitol lobbyist and campaign consultant Richie Ross for putting two legislators under personal obligation to him by not collecting campaign consulting fees they owed.
Over the phone, he told me that "first and foremost, legislators have an obligation to follow the constitution, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment," which in this case means striving for the least painful method of execution.
Setting quotas at maximum sustainable yields by 2015 was "unrealistic," he said, and the discard ban was a "radical obligation" that legislators had adopted without understanding that in many cases it would be impossible to implement.
In an afternoon news conference, Mr. McGreevey hewed to two themes: that Republican legislators were evading their obligation to enact a balanced budget, and that in resisting his proposed taxes they were doing the bidding of the casino, tobacco and billboard industries.
We need not consider whether executives or legislators have any constitutional obligation to listen to unsolicited advice to decide this case.
Instead of raising taxes in a futile attempt to pay for burdensome entitlement programs, Mr. Singer said legislators should be focused on slashing obligations.
You can choose some obligations but not others, while the legislators and judges figure out which ones are really mandatory.
This is about one-fifth of its day-to-day operating budget.There is little the city can do about its pensions problems alone, as its obligations to pensioners are determined by legislators in Springfield.
