ALBANY – State lawmakers will finally begin voting on New York’s massive budget package Wednesday, but the public and even politicians themselves aren’t sure what the spending bills will say.
Thousands of pages of text that make up the budget bill were scheduled to be released starting on Tuesday night, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers would only have hours to review the package before voting on it.
Some sources are even casting doubt on the $254 billion figure that Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week.
“The senators have not seen a budget bill, we are told they are on their way, and we’re gonna begin voting this week, we haven’t seen one,” State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) said.
“Let these bills age. Let us dig in. Let us know what we’re voting for for the people of New York,” Ortt added.
Under the state constitution, the legislature must wait three calendar days before voting on a newly introduced bill, such as the state budget.
But that will be bypassed with a “message of necessity” from Hochul that will allow an early vote on the budget.
“The governor has taken and abused what should be used only for emergencies and done that to jam budget bills through,” North Country state Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) said.
Walczyk sponsored a bill that would prohibit messages of necessity from being used for the state budget.
The state budget process is infamously opaque, with the majority of negotiations conducted behind closed doors with the governor and legislative leaders.
Last year, state lawmakers and the governor emerged from backroom talks with a surprise decision to overhaul a Medicaid homecare program, the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program.
The proposal they enacted had never been previously revealed or openly discussed.
The overhaul they approved has been fraught with accusations of bid rigging, lawsuits and now has led to homecare workers going without pay.
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