ALBANY - The Legislature's mostly silenced minority parties so far this year have tried to change legislative rules, alter the way the budget is negotiated, even to sweeten a tax-cut proposal to include renters.

But as in past years, the proposals will mostly be fodder for campaign fliers back home, not legislation in Albany.

While leaders of majority parties in both houses - Democrats in the Assembly and Republicans in the Senate - wield great power in what proposals become law, there is little chance for a minority party measure to even get to a floor debate.

Without a majority leader's consent, it's harder to get a bill to the floor in Albany than in any state legislature in the country, concluded the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law in a 2004 report that deemed New York's legislature the worst in the nation.

“The minorities, Mr. Smith and myself, are left out,” said Republican Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, referring to Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat. “We don't want anything special, just to let our ideas get aired.”

“It's absolutely an embarrassment for the people of this state,” Smith said. “They can't even have representatives with the ability to get a bill on the floor of the Senate.”

Still, the minority party proposals are worth watching because they aren't always ignored. Albany's majority parties have long a tradition of occasionally adopting proposals first pushed by minority party lawmakers.

“What's most unusual about the process in Albany is you actually have to have the minority, which is sponsoring a bill for a long time, to completely remove itself from the sponsorship process,” said Lawrence Norden, counsel for the Brennan Center.

Last week, Smith and the Senate Democrats proposed expanding the Senate Republicans' $6 billion property tax cut proposal to include a new wrinkle. The Senate Democrats would provide a $200 to $400 income tax break for renters outside New York City.

“It would benefit those most in need of assistance,” said Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat who sponsors the measure. She said the proposal, which would keep $640 million in the hands of renters, would provide relief for families facing steeply rising rents. Even small apartments in working class neighborhoods in Yonkers and elsewhere in Westchester carry rents of more than $1,000 a month.

Sen. David Valesky, an Onondaga County Democrat, proposed increasing what he said was a long overlooked existing tax break for senior citizens that hasn't been adjusted for 30 years. He would increase the maximum tax credit to $1,125, from the current $375. His bill would also update the requirements, allowing a maximum income of $36,000 (instead of $18,000) and update the household value to a maximum of $100,000, from $85,000.

On Monday, Tedisco's Republican proposal to join the governor and majority leaders in the Senate and Assembly in negotiating a state budget was defeated.

On Wednesday he took shots at the majorities and Gov. Eliot Spitzer at a press conference proclaiming a historic ethics reform agreement. Several times, Tedisco noted he wasn't invited to negotiate the package billed as bringing openness to Albany. He has an idea with bite, too: Any state official who violated ethics law would lose his or her pension.

Under a press released headlined, “Rub a dub, dub ... three men in a tub,” Tedisco said ignoring the minority party lawmakers disenfranchises the millions of New Yorkers who live in their districts.

“It's pathetic,” he said.

Republicans have a 33-28 majority in the Senate with one vacancy that will be filled in a special election Feb. 6 on Long Island. The Democrats have a 107-42 majority in the Assembly, with one vacancy that will be filled with a special election that hasn't yet been scheduled.