There is no question that the Legislature should become full-time, meeting from January through December to do a better job tackling the many, many problems that the state has for too long ignored its responsibility to fix. The bloated budget, the lapsed Article X siting law, the ridiculous system of overlapping governments, the property tax climb, the faltering health care system, the absurdly lackadaisical campaign finance laws-there is quite a bit to do. Every moment that passes makes the problems worse, and their solutions more difficult to achieve. Even without the economic crisis that threatens to sink the state, there would be more than enough to do.

The members of the Assembly and State Senate should be back in Albany now, this week, this month, debating and passing bills on any of these issues-or on home heating oil pricing, a debate that is entitled to at least as much attention as the gas tax holiday ploy received at the beginning of the summer. They have until Nov. 4 to make their cases to their constituents, acting or not acting, passing or not passing new laws, achieving or not achieving results. Until Nov. 4. Then that is it. They should not be back there Nov. 18, or any time after Election Day until Jan. 1.

With the seats of Mary Lou Rath, Joseph Bruno, John Sabini, Martin Connor and Efrain Gonzalez undoubtedly going to new senators on Election Day, a lame duck session is inappropriate, even if all the remaining incumbents of both parties manage to get re-elected-which probably will not happen anyway. Five out of 62 is already a remarkably high turnover for the chamber. If party control of any seat switches in the current 32-30 split, the impact would be huge.

In a chamber that is so closely divided, every shift in party control of a seat and every infusion of a new personality will have deep reverberations in the dynamics of any potential legislative compromise. To act as if this is not true would undercut the arguments they have all been making out on the campaign trail. So while they are surely within their technical rights to return to Albany after the elections, for the senators to do so is a finger in the eye of the  voters and their judgment about how things should proceed forward from November.

Skipping the lame duck session will make the burden even greater for those who do arrive in January, and the senators, both incumbents and newcomers, should start preparing for the task. After this massive, epic fight for majority control of the State Senate in a year when promises of revolutionary change have come to define both major party presidential nominees, expectations will, with good reason, be very high, whether the Republicans keep their edge or the Democrats manage to pull it away. Beginning right on Jan. 1, the first six months of 2009 should be a blizzard of activity in Albany, of pulling back the budget equitably and making progress on all the extremely pressing problems which have so long plagued New York and contributed to its-unfortunately-downward trend. The last six months of 2009 should be as well. But while no votes or final decisions should be made until Jan. 1, the state government should be active until then, preparing the bills and other measures to help get New York the progress it needs. First among them: a law ensuring that 2008 will be the last fall ever without the Legislature in session, before or after November.