Sen. Pedro Espada says he'll hold up budget approval to force attention on specific issues.
Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. said he would hold up approval of the budget to force attention on specific issues. Albany, NY — Just as the Democrats appeared to have shored up their majority in the Senate to avoid being responsible for the latest budget in the state history, another Democrat says he won’t show up at Tuesday’s special session to cast his vote.
Overnight negotiations also failed to come up with a compromise intended give the state’s public universities more freedom to grow into national academic powers. The plan would give the university systems more autonomy from the Legislature and governor, including the power to set their own tuition increases.
Two state officials said talks broke down early Tuesday with the Assembly refusing to accept the proposal that would have resulted in annual tuition increases of 2 percent to 4 percent for the next few years and would have ended some control by lawmakers over the State University of New York and City University of New York. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the closed-door talks.
As the Legislature prepared to move on from that stalled proposal to finally finish the budget that was due April 1, Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. announced he would hold up approval of the budget to force attention on specific issues.
The Democrat, whose re-election bid was opposed by his own party’s leaders in July, said he wants attention paid to the SUNY-CUNY proposal and his proposals for farm workers.
Without Espada’s vote, the majority can’t pass anything without help from the Republican minority, which usually votes as a bloc against the Democrats.
“I cannot participate in a legislative process that still has not addressed basic and important needs of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Espada, a Bronx Democrat who was the central figure in a gridlocking coup last summer with a coalition of Republicans.
“Call me when there is serious and meaningful discussion on SUNY reform, farm worker rights, immigration and affordable housing legislation, and other issues that directly impact the needs of the marginalized, poor and working class families and individuals in my district, the Bronx and the entire state,” Espada said in a statement issued as the Senate and Assembly prepared to convene.
In July, Espada fought back an effort by New York Democratic leaders to oust him from the party. He said the attempt was racially motivated and engineered by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the party’s nominee for governor. Espada is under state and federal investigation for allegedly siphoning $14 million from health clinics he operates in the Bronx and keeping the money for his personal use.
There appears to be agreement on the insistence by Gov. David Paterson and Senate leader John Sampson on a contingency plan to deal with the possibility $1 billion in promised Medicaid reimbursement won’t come from Washington.