For the first time in five years, the State Legislature has not passed a budget by the April 1 constitutional deadline.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders Sen. John Flanagan, Sen. Jeffrey Klein and Assemblyman Carl Heastie announced a budget agreement last night, but the budget bills have not yet passed through the legislature. Both the Assembly and Senate are expected to vote on them today.
The State Senate held a marathon, all-night session that was still ongoing this morning, with senators debating the bills complained about having to vote on a budget whose details were not made available to them until a few hours before the vote. The senate ended debate just before 7:15 a.m.
“This is not the way to do business. This is not the way democracy should work,” Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) said this morning. “We did not get to see any of the details of this until about two hours ago,” he said.
“If you don’t give me a menu and don’t allow me to order, then don’t put a bologna sandwich in front of me and call it steak,” Rivera said.
“It’s unconscionable,” Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Brookyln) said. “No one should be asked to vote on a $158 billion budget with only four hours to review voluminous pages of legislation. This is done on purpose.”
North Fork Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) also criticized the process earlier in the week.
“U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has warned against holding closed door meetings to hammer out the details of a budget that is supposed to represent the entire state of New York – not the political interests of elected officials – yet this is still going on,” Palumbo said.
“If the Legislature is serious about cleaning up Albany, we must end practices like this; that’s what the people want. Enough with the three-men-in-a-room, we need total transparency,” he said.
The $158 billion budget deal worked out by the governor and legislative leaders over the past couple of days holds the increase in state spending to 2 percent and includes a $15 minimum wage, phased in over a period of years and at different rates, depending on geographic location.
For workers in Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester Counties, the minimum wage would increase to $10 at the end of this year, then $1 each year after, reaching $15 on 12/31/2021.
The budget agreement includes a paid family leave program the governor called “the longest and most comprehensive” in the nation. When fully phased- in, employees will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid family leave when caring for an infant, a family member with a serious health condition or to relieve family pressures when someone is called to active military service. Benefits will be phased-in beginning in 2018 and fully implemented in 2021.
The budget provides $24.8 billion in school aid – the highest level in state history and a 6.5 percent increase over last year, the governor said – and also ends the Gap Elimination Adjustment, a reduction in state aid to education aimed at helping to close a $10 billion state budget deficit in the wake of the 2008 economic crash.
In addition to traditional school aid, the budget maintains $340 million in annual funding for the statewide universal full-day prekindergarten program and continues the $2 billion Smart Schools program. Foundation aid to school districts is increased by $627 million (four percent).
The budget also also cuts the state personal income tax, which Cuomo said save middle class New Yorkers nearly $6.6 billion in the first four years.
The governor said the budget contains the largest state transportation plan ever approved, with over $55 billion of transportation investments statewide.
