State lawmakers were down to the wire on meeting the state budget deadline, and voting is expected to go on beyond the midnight deadline, and possibly into Friday, once all of the budget bills are finalized.
As voting began Thursday night, few facts were known.
Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders have agreed to a minimum wage increase to $15 in New York City and eventually, on Long Island, and to $12.50 in upstate New York.
There was no press conference announcing the agreement, or briefing on its details, but Senate Finance committee Chair Kathy Young confirmed some of the items.
“What we’re looking at is what has been spelled out previously, as far as a lower rate upstate,” said Senator Young. “Phased in, with studies.”
Young says a “pause” recommended by Governor Cuomo after three years to study the effects of the increased minimum wage will be included in the plan.
Senator Young, who represents Olean in the Senate, also spoke on the Senate floor as the non controversial portions of the budget were debated. She listed other elements that she said would be in the budget, including a $1 billion dollar multi year middle class tax cut for joint filers and small businesses making up to $300,000 a year . Senator Young says tuition rates at public colleges and universities will be frozen.
“I can hear students and parents cheering across the state,” Young told the other Senators in the chamber. “There will be no tuition increase this year.”
And she says $25 billion dollars will be spent on roads and bridges over the next five years.
But those bills were not yet printed, and regular lawmakers had not seen them. Democrats, who are in the minority in the chamber, complained about what they say is an even higher level of secrecy surrounding budget deals. Senator Mike Gianaris, from Queens, asked Senator Young why she was so sure that the provisions would be in the budget at all, if no actual deal had been announced.
“ I’m wondering on behalf of not only my conference, but on behalf of the public, who is dying to know what’s going to be in this budget, if we ever get to see it,” Gianaris said. “Where does the confidence that those provisions will be in a budget that’s yet to be printed come from?
Senator Young conceded that the bills were not yet ready, but would be coming later in the night.
“I have a lot of faith,” Young said.
When Senator Gianaris persisted in asking when Senators would see the bills they were expected to vote on, acting Senate President Joseph Griffo, of Utica, shut him down, banging his gavel and shouting “You’re out of order!”
Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco, a
Republican for Syracuse, intervened.
“ Let’s calm down a little bit both sides ,” said DeFrancisco who allowed Gianaris to continue with more questions.
“ And hopefully we could move to the point and get on with this in a reasonable hour,” DeFrancisco said.
Debate continued in a more civil manner.
The reason that the bills were not available to the public, is that the agreements on major budget issues came so late, that Governor Cuomo had to issue special messages of necessity. That allows them to skip the required three day waiting period between when a bill in introduced and when it can go on the floor for passage.
The budget deal was hashed out behind closed doors in private meetings with Governor Cuomo and majority party legislative leaders, leaving many at the Capitol besides even the Senate Democrats, in the dark in the final days and hours .
“Everyone is asking ‘have you heard anything?’, ‘does anybody know anything’,” said Barbara Bartoletti, with the League of Women Voters. She says it’s the least transparent budget process she’s seen in recent years.
“This has been the darkest, most secretive budget process I’ve seen in this governor’s administration so far,” she said.
Bartoletti says it would not damage the state very much to simply wait until Monday to vote, giving everyone, including legislators, a chance to see the details of what’s actually in the budget.