Last week, the New York State Assembly and Senate reconvened in Albany to continue an Extraordinary Session. Thus far, both houses have been in Albany for just over two weeks and have yet to come up with an agreed upon deficit reduction plan to be voted on. As rank-and-file members grow frustrated with continued inaction, legislative leaders continue to have closed-door meetings, providing the public with little or no information on their progress or the lack thereof.
At the start of the second week in Extraordinary Session, my colleagues and I in the Assembly Minority Conference once again presented our proposals to close the estimated $3.2 billion state budget gap. We highlighted the need to reduce spending and lower taxes; our plan accomplishes these goals without shifting the burden onto the backs of overtaxed New Yorkers struggling to survive. Instead, our plan contains ideas such as consolidating state agencies and eliminating expensive state mandates. However, as we present our plan, we stand alone with our ideas to get the state out of crisis. The majorities in both legislative houses have yet to release their plans or put forward any credible proposals for ways to address the budget crisis.
Closing this deficit is my top priority and it should be the top priority of every New York state legislator. The harsh reality is that we need to make tough decisions to close the deficit. Unfortunately, our legislative leaders appear incapable of making these important decisions. The time to fix this deficit is now as every passing day is another missed opportunity and places an increased financial responsibility on the already overtaxed residents of New York state.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns on this or any other state issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me at either my Johnstown office at (518) 762-6486, or my Herkimer office at (315) 866-1632.