ALBANY—Lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General will be representing New York in a lawsuit filed by several education groups, an aide to Andrew Cuomo said.
The attorneys are preparing a reply that will be filed tomorrow in Supreme Court in Albany County, the aide said. Cuomo is constitutionally obligated to represent the Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson just held a press conference to attack education groups who are suing him, saying the “special interests” have joined legislators who “stuck their heads in the sand.”
“What these groups have said is, ‘We’re not special interests, we’re extra special,’” Paterson said in the Red Room. “We’re supposed to get all of Read More
ALBANY—As threatened, a coalition of education groups announced on the (cold!) Capitol steps they have sued David Paterson, saying his decision to stall education payments (which were to be sent Tuesday) is unconstitutional.
The suit says that Educational Law requires the governor to make payments on a fixed schedule, that he is Read More
ALBANY—The economy is still bad, and New York is still running out of money, and David Paterson said he will tell budget officials to withhold payments to local governments and schools.
“We are in a very deep quagmire. New York is now at the breaking point. We are about to cross the financial Rubicon Read More
ALBANY—John Sampson, the leader of the Democratic conference in the State Senate, was asked if he felt New York truly faces a cash squeeze in December.
“You know, it’s very important that we deal with the economic crisis the way it is. We just have to deal with it, whether it happens in a couple Read More
ALBANY—Here's how David Paterson gets to $3 billion in order to balance this year's "recently burgeoning deficit."
– $1.3 billion cutting local assistance "across the board." This includes $480 million in school aid and $287 million in Medicaid cuts.
– $500 million in already-announced state agency cuts
– $250 million from tax amnesty Read More
ALBANY—No deficit reduction plans today. Tomorrow.
Financial staffers for the various legislative conferences met with Budget Director Bob Megna, but he did not present details of what was coming. The expectation, from Megna's perspective, was that legislative leaders would come to the table with ideas for spending reductions, pursuant to a request last week. Read More
ALBANY—State lawmakers will have to wrangle against a $2.1 billion mid-year shortfall in the state budget this September.
The Division of Budget today released the first quarter update to the spending plan adopted in April, which found sales tax and income tax revenues down about $743 million below their projected levels. Over the Read More
