Legislative Leaders Waiting On State Budget Gap (Updated)
-
- October
- 8
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said yesterday that he believes the state is facing a $1.2 billion hole, not $2 billion as Gov. Paterson has indicated.
And this morning, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said he needs to wait until next month to better understand what the budget gap is.
“It’s a figure that we’ll know better on Nov. 5, when all of us have to, by the constitution, submit our analysis of what the situation is for the following year,” he said on Albany radio station 1300-AM.
Asked if it’s too early to commit to a $2 billion budget gap for the current fiscal year, Skelos said, “The speaker has indicated that. The comptroller has indicated that. And we want all our figures in, and then we’re going to do what is necessary to bring the state budget in balance.”
Paterson met with legislative leaders last Friday and urged them to come back to Albany on Nov. 18 to cut $2 billion from the current state budget. While the gap currently sits at $1.2 billion, Paterson estimates it will grow to $2 billion by the time the fiscal year ends on March 31.
Yet it doesn’t appear legislative leaders are ready to agree on the $2 billion figure.
Moreover, Skelos reiterated his objection to cutting aid to schools, something that Paterson has not ruled out.
“We can’t just shift the burden to local property taxes,” he said.
Updated: The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chided Skelos for wanting to wait for next month to evaluate the budget deficit.
“Dean Skelos says he wants to wait a month before he begins to fix the budget. Is he joking?” said spokesman Austin Shafran. “We know there is a problem. But he won’t cut the budget and hurt his special interest fundraising friends. He would be happy to keep the high Republican taxes, big Republican pork and out-of-control Republican debt. We can’t afford to wait a day, let alone a month.”
Gov. Paterson’s office reiterated that he believes the budget gap will be $2 billion.
“Given that the fiscal crisis is growing deeper by the day, Gov Paterson believes it is prudent to achieve $2 billion of savings to both address this year’s shortfall and the looming budget gap we face for next year,” said spokesman Errol Cockfield.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pm by Joseph Spector.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
Do any of these goofs realized that Wall Street, which NY State relies on for its profligate spending has imploded? This is like the oil wells going out in Saudi Arabia. What do the Arab countries do next for income with nothing but delicatessens and tire repair shops to tax? Something similar can be said of NY State. And these birdbrains won’t even get together, meet, and discuss the ramifications. They want to wait until next month to see what happens, to see if winter trees start growing billion dollar leaves. This is our leadership.