Lawmakers say they want a more transparent and timely budget process
Albany — As the New York State budget moves hours and days...and possibly weeks...past its April 1st deadline, lawmakers are questioning the budget process, which has a long-standing reputation of being late.
While the Cuomo administration passed on-time budgets for his first four years in office, the majority of the adopted budgets throughout the state's history have come late, at times impacting state workers along with some organizations and charities. Governor Hochul's first budget as Governor was adopted on April 9th in 2022. Some lawmakers have expressed frustration on the deliberate nature of the talks in 2023.
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"In my 5 years that I’ve been here, this is the worst process that I’ve been a part of," Republican Assemblyman Chris Tague says. "They’ve had since January to put something together, to be working on this budget. Negotiations should’ve started a month ago, and we should’ve had a deal ready to go on the table at the beginning of this week."
Some Democrats say missing the deadline means they're working to make sure nothing is missed throughout the process, calling it an effort to not make any mistakes along the way. With that in mind, reports say lawmakers will be voting on an extender on Monday.
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"I think we’re going to make sure the state workers are not impacted by this because that would be unfair," Democrat Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner says. "The legislators won’t get paid until the budget gets done, which I think is actually the right thing."
Fellow Democrat Phil Steck says like in many other states, the legislature should have more power in the budget process.
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"When you have legislative budgeting what happens is you have the two houses get together. They have conference committees, they work out a budget, and it gets done. It’s a more efficient process and that’s the process the federal government uses."
On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers introduced the "NYS Budget Transparency Act", aimed at not allowing any budgetary legislative proceedings between midnight at 8 a.m., while limiting "messages of necessity."
"We want the three days to read the bill, understand it and represent ourselves on the floor with important questions on why they’re doing it for our constituents, and be real representatives," Republican State Senator Jim Tedisco says.
