Legislature is approaching anniversary of its latest budget ever: Aug. 11, 2004.
View full sizeNew York State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., D-Bronx, pushes past reporters prior to the start of a July 9, 2009, special session of the New York state Senate at the Capitol, in Albany. On Tuesday, Espada said he would not attend a special session of the Senate, but then did show up. However, the Senate still could not agree on a budget.ALBANY, N.Y. — Just as the Democrats appeared to have shored up their majority in the Senate to avoid being responsible for the latest state budget in New York history, one of their members refused to show up for Tuesday’s special session, only to reverse course when he forced action on his proposals.
Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., a Bronx Democrat, attended the special session after the leadership agreed to consider proposals important to his re-election effort, including a bill to provide migrant farm workers with overtime pay, paid vacations and other rights.
“It’s a disgrace,” said Sen. John Bonacic, an Orange County Republican. “Sen. Espada is holding the state Senate hostage.”
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.
Even with Espada back, there appeared to be little chance the Democrats would have the votes of all its 32 members, the number needed to pass the $1.5 billion revenue bill that is the final piece of a budget overdue since April 1.
Sen. William Stachowski, a Buffalo Democrat, said in an interview that he didn’t think the final budget bill would even be brought to the floor. He said he won’t vote on the measure until there’s a deal on a bill to give more power to the state’s public university systems, including the Buffalo university center in his district. In June, his opposition held up the Senate’s vote on the final bill.
The Senate’s Republican minority, shut out of most negotiations by Democrats, has voted in a bloc against the budget. “We will not vote for any increases in taxes or fees, and any bill that includes those will not receive any Republican support,” said Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County.
The Legislature, in an election year, is approaching the anniversary of latest budget ever — Aug. 11, 2004. Lawmakers have had more than $30,000 in pay suspended since the April 1 due date.
Negotiations through Monday night failed to result in a compromise that would give the state’s public universities more freedom to grow into national academic powers and to engage in public-private partnerships, such as building hotels and other facilities. The plan would give the university systems more autonomy from the Legislature and governor, including the power to set their own tuition increases and keep it for the campuses, rather than for the state’s general fund. The universities have seen several years of cuts in operations funding from Albany.
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.
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. Assembly Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari, an Albany County Democrat, said the Assembly is expected to approve the Medicaid plan.
He also said the Assembly will agree with the Senate and governor to remove a new tax on wealthy hedge fund managers from Paterson’s budget proposal. Officials fear the tax would drive the managers and their big paychecks to Connecticut, a concern underscored by a public recruitment effort by Connecticut officials.
The Democrat-led Assembly also was in session Tuesday. It passed all its budget bills in late June, at the end of the regular legislative session.
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