Senate Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats about the budget being late. Republicans insist Democrats need to abide by budget reforms and hold conference committees and deliver a budget as soon as possible.
Democrats are insist that Republicans barely ever delivered on time when they were in the majority. The debate is taking place in anticipation of a vote on a budget extender that will keep state government functioning for another week. A number of Republicans have indicated that they will vote against the extender to make a point.
Republican Sens. Tom Libous, John DeFrancisco and William Larkin all took turns scolding Democrats for excluding them from budget negotiations and ignoring budget reform laws that call for conference committees when Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker rose to ask a question of Larkin. He asked Larking how long he had served. Larkin answered that he has served in the legislature for over 20 years.
Parker asked: “Over those 20 years, how often has budget of the State of New York been late?”
“Until we passed reform it was many times late,” Larkin responded.
Larkin insisted that it was a combination of the assembly and governor that helped make the budget late.
Parker scoffed at the idea.
Parker went on to blame Republican policy for the state’s financial woes.
Only moments later. Sen. Carl Kruger announced the number of times the budget has been late over the years, including the number of days the budget was late and how many extenders were passed to keep the government running.
Republicans argued that no matter what the history has been Democrats need to hold bipartisan negotiations and work for an on-time budget.
If you recall, the budget being late was considered the absolute norm in Albany for years. Albany passed it’s first on-time budget in 21 years in 2005.
Sen. Andrew Lanza asked Parker if he was blaming the late budget on George Bush and the fact that the budget has been late in the past.
Parker retorted that he was simply blaming the policies of the Republican Party and the policies of the former Senate Republican Majority.
Later Lanza spoke on the bill and said he was tired of hearing Democrats using past budget delays for the current one. “I have a five-year-old at home that comes up with better excuses than that.” He went on to insist that no Democrat has reached across the aisle to talk to him about the budget.
And so it goes…
By David King on April 12, 2010, 6:10 pm
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