ALBANY, N.Y. -- Progress has been made at the Capitol where Governor Paterson and the Legislature have agreed to $427 million in budget cuts for this year.
The cuts are expected to save the state nearly $1.5 billion over the next two years.
The budget cuts this year include $127 million from Medicaid, $182 million from local spending and $118 million from other portions of state spending.
In a Red Room news conference, Governor Paterson said the state has turned a corner during this special legislative session.
Progress has been made at the state Capitol where Governor Paterson and the Legislature have agreed to $427 million in budget cuts for this year.
"The winds of change have come to Albany," he said. "We have never cut this amount off of a budget without taxing in anyone's memory. We have never gone into the budget and made these types of cuts in an election year. And we've never gone into the budget in August."
Governor Paterson went on to say that a precedent has been set and that he is confident lawmakers would come back later this year to make more cuts if state revenue forecasts continue to decline.
Leaders from the Senate and Assembly are praising the progress that's been made this week.
Following Governor Paterson's news conference, Democrats and Republicans congratulated each other for agreeing on significant cuts in such a short period of time without raising taxes.
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith said, "He has accomplished what my records have showed has been unprecedented in this state. Never has a governor brought leaders back to the table during an election year and make cuts where they needed to be made. The people of the state should be very proud of our governor, as I am and I'm sure the rest of the leaders are. This is a step in the right direction."
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said, "That we would not do anything that would shift the burden to local property taxpayers and we didn't. And we wouldn't do anything to diminish the quality of health care that people expect and deserve in New York State, and we accomplished that in a bipartisan basis. And those were the conditions we set, and we also did it without raising taxes and that's critically important to the future of the economy of our state."
Of course, not everyone is happy with the budget cuts. Among them, the New York State Teachers Union.
While the union praised lawmakers for protecting funding for public schools and community colleges, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said, "Cutting state support to SUNY and CUNY is not the answer. These cuts will have a crippling effect on programs. Many of our communities, especially upstate, depend on these campuses to support their economies."