Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he believes we’ll see a budget – signed, sealed and delivered – by Monday or Tuesday.  He says the finishing touches are being put on some of the more controversial portions of the state spending plan and a final version will soon make its way to the printer.

“I think they are being finalized as we speak.  Things are going fairly well, and I’m hopeful that we can have a printed bill sometime this evening.  I think we may probably not vote until tomorrow.  It’s all part of the larger budget, so I think we can have completed two big pieces of the budget by tomorrow… I’m hopeful we can complete a budget by Monday or Tuesday.”

The show of confidence comes one day after Governor Paterson declared June 28 the drop dead date for a deal during a very zippy leaders’ meeting.  If an agreement isn’t reached by a week from Monday, Paterson will put the remainder of his executive budget in the subsequent extender bill – forcing the legislature to adopt his spending plan or face a government shutdown.

When asked about the issue of borrowing, Silver indicated he’s still willing to consider the idea.  Governor Paterson has gone back and forth on the issue, saying yesterday he opposes borrowing.  This morning he went so far as to say he’d rather turn to taxes to close the budget gap than resort to borrowing.

“I’m here to compromise,” Silver said, “I will abide by what people, what brings about a budget.  I’m not disappointed.  I think it’s very good for the governor to put his opinion out very clearly at this time.”

Silver also weighed in on legalizing mixed marital arts – a potential revenue raiser – and instituting no fault divorce in New York.  Yesterday, the Senate narrowly passed both bills.  Silver says, while he’s not a fan of MMA per se, both issues will be debated in the Assembly before the session is out.

“I’m not enamored with mixed marital arts, but, you know, it’s up to the conference.  And I think that no fault divorce as a concept should be part of our domestic relations law.  There are a lot of technical things that have to be worked out in that.”

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