After announcing that the Senate would leave tonight without passing the revenue piece of the budget, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, went over to the other house to talk with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. The Assembly plans to return tomorrow to vote on the revenue part of the… Read More →
Gov. David Paterson spoke to reporters in Washington today about up to $1 billion in Medicaid money the state could lose, and his ongoing concerns that the Legislature hasn’t developed a contingency plan in case Congress doesn’t come up with the money. Paterson met with other governors in Washington today… Read More →
Senate Democrats shelved plans to vote on the final pieces of the state budget tonight, saying instead they want to negotiate over how to close a potential $1 billion gap in federal aid and enact reforms to the state university system. So they are taking at least a five-day break…. Read More →
The Assembly just passed legislation 105-1 that would extend the Power for Jobs and Energy Cost Savings Benefit programs through May 15, 2011. The only problem is there’s no identical bill in the Senate, and lawmakers are preparing to finish up the budget and other business and then leave Albany…. Read More →
Whether the state Legislature would allow Rochester’s mayor to have control over city schools was hanging in the balance today as advocates and opponents were lobbying state senators over the measure. The bill’s sponsor, Senate President Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, told Gannett’s Albany Bureau this afternoon that the bill is one… Read More →
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the revenue raisers that the Legislature plans to approve—the Senate in the midnight hours and the Assembly tomorrow morning—are pretty well set. “I don’t envision any great talks about changing it,” Silver said. Silver said any override of Paterson’s vetoes would be considered after… Read More →
Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, said he hasn’t violated Assembly rules that prohibit use of Assembly televised proceedings in campaign ads because the clip he uses in his ad has been in the public domain and thus isn’t directly Assembly footage. “It’s publicly accessible. It’s in the public domain,”... Read More →
State Senate candidate Bob Cohen is holding a press conference outside the Port Chester office of state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck. Cohen is Oppenheimer’s Republican challenger and is a Scarsdale volunteer firefighter and real estate executive. According to the release put out by his campaign, Cohen today will be calling… Read More →
They may not have a lot in common, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has the back of Gov. David Paterson when it comes to his 6,900 or so vetoes of new spending and legislative pork. Paterson struck out $419 million in school aid and plans to veto an additional… Read More →
Senate Democrats said they provided Republicans today with a memo that estimated the total spending in the Legislature’s budget at $135.7 billion. GOP senators criticized Democrats for not being able to provide a bottom-line figure during a floor debate yesterday. This is the memo that Senate Democrats sent: Memo to… Read More →
