ALBANY, N.Y. -- “We've got a good leader now, hopefully he can lead us to an on-time budget,” said Jim Tedisco, (R) Assembly Minority Leader.
Every year...
“It's important it gets done on time,” said Ron Canestrari, (D) Assembly Majority Leader.
It's all about getting the state budget done
“An on time budget is important,” said Neil Breslin, (D) State Senate.
And done by April 1st.
We've been hearing plenty about how legislators are working to pass the budget on time.
“We cannot send the signal to New Yorkers that we're so absorbed with the scandal we can't get the job done,” said Ron Canestrari, (D) Assembly Majority Leader.
But on time or not, are the Assembly and Senate plans leading to the right budget?
“There aren't going to be a lot of new and innovative programs with a deficit that seems to be growing,” said Breslin.
The deficit; $5 billion. And both versions seem to spend more than the governor's $124 billion budget everyone's working off of.
“What we need is to hold the line on spending,” said Tedisco.
Fat chance says Empire Center for New York State Policy Director E.J. McMahon.
“What's going on this week is pretty much what would have gone on if nothing had ever happened with Governor Spitzer,” said Edmund J. McMahon, Empire Center for NY State Policy Director.
McMahon's been looking at the respective budgets and says he's left with plenty of questions.
“The Assembly voted on a massive stack of legislation nearly a foot high and didn't put out any explanatory material or financial plan so it's unclear what they did unless you read through thousands of pages of legislation,” said McMahon.
He says the Assembly's budget increases spending at up to 4 times the rate of inflation. The governor's proposal also criticized for not controlling spending "only" spent about two times the rate of inflation. He says the Senate's math is unclear, and they won't go for the Assembly plan to raise taxes on those making more than $1 million a year.
“They could eliminate every tax and fee increase in the budget if they were willing to reduce spending. They're not willing to reduce spending,” said McMahon.
In the end legislators simply say the budget is a moving target - so it will come down to lengthy negotiations with the new Governor. But they say so far they do have faith it will get done on time.
“We only have two weeks. We have to move forward,” said Canestrari.
Especially as revenue projections continue to dip because of a tightening economy.