Paterson still plans to keep vetoing.
Lobbyists Michael Elmendorf II (left) and Michael Durant stand in the Senate lobby at the Capitol in Albany on Tuesday. The Senate plans to come back into session after the holiday weekend.Albany, NY — New York’s Senate is reversing course and coming back into session exactly three months after the state budget was due, but the final bill needed to close the budget isn’t on its schedule.
Senate leader John Sampson had made a surprise announcement Wednesday night that the chamber would break for the July 4 holiday weekend and then try to negotiate with Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on bills Paterson insists the Legislature take up before he discusses any other measures. Paterson promises to veto all 6,900 of the Legislature’s spending additions passed since Monday to his executive budget submitted in January.
Legislative leaders hope to persuade Paterson to hold off on the vetoes, including thousands of discretionary grants lawmakers direct to programs and groups back in their home districts, an important tool this election year.
“I’m not having a meeting, I’m vetoing today,” Paterson said Thursday on WOR radio.
The last budget bill covers taxes and other revenue, but isn’t on the list of bills scheduled for consideration Thursday by the Senate. Under Senate rules, however, the revenue bill could be moved to the floor for debate at any time.
Senate spokesman Austin Shafran wouldn’t say how the Senate’s day is expected to unfold. Spokesmen for the governor and the Assembly said they didn’t know the Senate plans or why senators decided after midnight to return to session.
The Assembly is sticking to its plan of voting for the revenue plan, its last budget bill, and finishing its policy bills probably in the evening then breaking for the summer. The session had been scheduled to end June 21.
Until the final bill is passed, lawmakers’ pay will continue to be withheld. That back pay is now about $20,000 for each legislator.
Paterson’s priorities include creating a contingency fund in the event $1 billion in Medicaid funding from Washington never arrives. That money is now in the Legislature’s budget, so if the funding is lost there would be a $1 billion hole in the 2010-11 budget.
Paterson said Thursday he will resume vetoing the 6,900 of the Legislature’s bills and keep going as long as he physically can.