Politics on the Hudson

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, took some jabs at his Senate counterpart this morning on Talk 1300 Radio in Albany. Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, have both been criticized for not taking action last week on an emergency budget-cutting plan proposed by Gov. David Paterson.

Paterson called for a special session to vote on his $2 billion in budget reductions and he asked for input from lawmakers. Neither Silver nor Skelos presented ideas to the governor, and they decided against putting Paterson’s plan up for a vote in their chambers.

Silver said on the radio that he was willing to work with the governor and had told Paterson and others that “everything is on the table.” Silver said Skelos “effectively killed” the deal because he said he would need to see Paterson’s 2009-10 proposal before voting on this one. Silver said he thinks Skelos may want to leave everything to Democrats so his party doesn’t get blamed. The Republicans lost the majority in the Senate last month, the first time in more than 40 years, but the GOP is pushing several conservative Democrats to vote for a Republican majority leader and keep the party in power.

Skelos has expressed concern throughout the process that cuts in state funding not affect aid to schools and government and potentially create a need for property tax increases.