First it was downsizing town boards and village governments. Could New York's state legislature be next? Our Ryan Burgess tells us about one western New York downsizing activist's mission to take on the state.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- For years, Kevin Gaughan has been fighting, successfully, to downsize local town boards and dissolve some village governments. Now, he's hoping to use that momentum to downsize the New York state legislature.

"The vast majority of western New Yorkers want to downsize government from Amherst to Albany," said Gaughan.

Gaughan wants voters to decide in a statewide referendum, 16 months from now, whether to reduce the state senate from 62 to 50 members and the assembly from 150 to 125 members.

"The least effective and most dysfunctional legislative body in America - our New York state legislature," said Gaughan.

He claims the measure would save taxpayers at least $223 million a year.

"The New York state legislature ... It's not just dysfunctional. It's obsolete," said Gaughan.

But unlike his previous success downsizing local town boards by way of petition, this issue can't get on the ballot without help from the legislature. The state law that sets the composition of the senate and assembly would need to be amended before the issue could go to a public vote.

"It's a silly idea," said Jim Gardner, the vice president of academic affairs at UB Law School.

He said some of Gaughan's proposal is forbidden by the state constitution and would require a constitutional amendment, just to get on the ballot.

"It has to pass in two consecutive sessions of the legislature so that's at least a couple of years, at a minimum, and that's only if it passes and only if it passes in both consecutive legislatures and then it's approved by the people in a popular referendum," said Gardner.

Before any of that might happen, Kevin Gaughan is sending a questionnaire to every legislature, asking their position on the issue.