Legislative Session May Be A Dud
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- November
- 13
State lawmakers will return to Albany on Tuesday to review Gov. David Paterson’s proposed $2 billion in cuts to the current state budget – but don’t expect them to go along with his plan.
Already, Senate Republicans are threatening to wait on any decisions until Paterson offers a budget plan for the 2009-10 budget year, which starts April 1.
“Before the Legislature acts, we need to see what the governor is proposing for next year,” said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County. “These important decisions about New York’s future cannot be made in a vacuum.”
Paterson fired back late Wednesday, saying Senate Republicans, who will remain in the majority at least through the end of the year, are remiss in waiting on any budget cuts.
“It would be fiscally irresponsible to delay addressing the current-year $1.5 billion deficit by tying it into next year’s budget,” Paterson’s office said in a statement. “The longer we wait to reduce spending the more difficult and costly it will be to confront these serious budget gaps later.”
Paterson plans to unveil a budget proposal for the 2009-10 fiscal year on Dec. 16, about a month earlier than usual, to begin tackling next year’s estimated budget gap of $12.5 billion deficit.
In the meantime, he has called the state Legislature back Tuesday to remedy the current gap of $1.5 billion, asking them to cut $2 billion to make sure the state can weather the economic downturn until March 31.
“Right now, what the state needs is immediate action to close this year’s $1.5 billion gap so we can ensure the state’s long-term fiscal security,” he said. “I am confident the Legislature will partner with us and rise to that challenge.”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 11:57 am by Joseph Spector.
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Take a look at this place and ask yourself is it any wonder why within it our thirteenth-century Frankenstein Dracula Zombie Banshee Yeti Gremlin Troll Mummy Wolf Men of the Living Dead Legislators choose to mix frogs with acid and promulgate the results to us as law and supposed wisdom.