State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno called it one of the worst endings of a legislative session he's even seen.

While Bruno's sentiment about the lack of progress in Albany last week was on the mark, it's interesting to note that he is the person responsible for the session actually ending. The state Senate ultimately decided last week that they were done playing for another year.

So nothing of consequence got done, and nothing will get done, it seems.

But it doesn't have to be that way. State legislators can go back to Albany and get to work again any time they please.

If they truly want to show the public they deserve a pay raise, one of the items that's been under consideration this year, they'll get back to work on their primary responsibility - passing legislation that makes New York a better place to live.

All sides are to blame for the failures this month in Albany, and they're all doing a good job passing that blame around.

Democrats accuse the Republican-controlled Senate of reneging on deals.

Republicans accuse the Democratically controlled Assembly of wasting time on meaningless legislation.

Others are blaming Spitzer for his obsession with campaign finance reform at the expense of all other progress.

Bruno, however, is setting his chamber up for carrying the most responsibility for the failures if he won't at least try to work on fixing the situation.

We urge other influential state senators, such as our own Sen. Michael Nozzolio, to convince their leader to get many of these important issues resolved this summer.

Property tax relief, Wicks law reform, campaign finance, judicial pay ... the list of things to do is certainly long enough.