The twists and turns of the last 16 days in the New York State Senate are likely to continue, at least, until the end of next year.

In the end it will not be senators, nor even judges who can solve the instability that has become the norm in Albany's upper chamber - it will be voters.

And it is not clear that they can resolve the current political seesaw in the Senate, even in 2010.

Going into last fall's election, it was clear that the Senate was in play.

The end result of having the Senate flip to the Democrats with a 32-30 majority after several close races came down to absentee ballots, made it even clearer that the majority was only a razor thin defection or two from collapsing.

With the so-called “Gang of Four” holding up the naming of Sen. Malcolm Smith as majority leader - Albany became even more fertile ground for backroom deal making and intrigue - that crescendoed two weeks ago.

Let's be clear, neither Sens. Pedro Espada nor Hiram Monserrate are the poster children of ethics and propriety, let alone good government.

Whether they side with Republicans or Democrats (let's remember that for the first five months of this legislative session these two were key to the Democrats' majority), they can waiver back and forth across the lines, as Monserrate has.

In the end it may only be voters who can solve the current crisis by giving one party an upper hand over the other in the 62 member chamber.

Unfortunately, that may not be all that easy - while voters may hate the state Legislature, especially as they follow the current circuslike atmosphere - they love their local legislators (as is seen by the regular re-election of local legislators who make up the Legislature), if they don't give one party a clear majority in 2010, the one who has the edge will re-draw new Senate lines for 2012, likely giving one party a stronger edge over the other only in January 2013.

The bottom line is that the state Senate will be in transition and turmoil for at least the next 18 months, until after the 2010 elections - the result is that Albany may be the site of a permanent circus that taxpayers pay for, whether they want to or not.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com