ALBANY—Legislative staffs are printing some of the nine bills that comprise the state budget, though complete agreements have not yet been reached in all areas.
Dan Weiller, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said some of the budget bills will be introduced today, allowing their passage by the Tuesday deadline. Others have not been completely locked down, according to sources in the Assembly and Senate. The agreed-upon portions are not yet publicly available.
Sources say the budget will use stimulus money to restore proposed cuts in education funding, and that some of the reductions in state subsidies to hospitals proposed by David Paterson will go through, but with pots of money to soften the blow in an interim period.
A Senate source said the proposal to extend deposits to water bottles remains in the budget.
But there is still no agreement over how a personal income tax increase will be structured, and it's unclear if one will be reached and codified in legislation by midnight. If a bill is introduced after midnight, it cannot be voted on until Wednesday without a "message of necessity" from David Paterson.
UPDATE: The Times reports a deal on the millionaires tax.
