ALBANY—Yes, it looks like there’s a budget deal.
Legislators will consider a $2.8 billion package today–that contains no cuts to school aid–and David Paterson will try to go further, holding up several payments to local governments.
“I do think if I go beyond what the legislature does, then that will be the Read More
ALBANY—Sources in both the Senate and Assembly say the leaders of those chambers have agreed to pass a deficit-reduction plan of around $2.85 billion that does not contain mid-year school aid cuts but does contain some cuts to healthcare. It will also contain lots of tricks and one-shot actions, some of which David 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—Still unable to reach agreement with the legislature on how to bridge a roughly $3 billion mid-year budget imbalance, David Paterson announced he is acting unilaterally to do $1.6 billion worth of things to strengthen the state’s balance sheet in the middle of this “fiscal emergency.”
“I feel that we have to start making Read More
ALBANY—A good (?) harbinger: State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. says he will be coming to the Capitol for Monday’s session.
“They sent me the governor’s budget proposal, so we have something to negotiate, so I’ll be in Albany. They just delivered it to me at my house. UPS,” Diaz told me just now, enjoying some Read More
ALBANY—It appears there’s some compromise in David Paterson’s deficit reduction bill.
The 440-page document proposes to soften the proposed cut to schools by “spinning up” funds appropriated in the federal stimulus package that were set aside to reduce education cuts next year. The new cut is $295 million; Paterson originally proposed a Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson has succeeded in uniting the State Senate.
“As I said, Leader Sampson and I have been working very well together, we will continue to do that,” Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos said in a joint scrum with Democratic Senate Leader John Sampson on the chamber floor. “We just need the governor to Read More
ALBANY—Dean Skelos, the Senate Republican leader, just suggested that David Paterson doesn’t really want to act on something that would plug the state’s budget deficit.
“We need the governor to stop the hysterics, to stop looking at his poll numbers,” Skelos told Fred Dicker on WGDJ. “I think, quite frankly, he hopes that Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson today sent the legislature two bills to consider: his $3 billion plan to bridge the deficit, as unveiled in October and an “executive option proposal” that seems like a fiscal version of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
“This would grant me, as governor, a one-time authority to balance our budget, Read More
ALBANY—Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver refused to rule out a two-way agreement with David Paterson to act on the state’s budget deficit.
“My members would like to, and we do agree with the governor that it’s a serious situation and we have to make serious cuts, and nobody likes to make serious cuts to anything Read More
