Leaders And Cuomo Huddle For Marathon Session, No Budget Deal Yet
The three legislative leaders met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for more than 3-1/2 hours Sunday evening and emerged to say no deal had been reached on 2013-14 budget.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, along with Senate Co-Presidents Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos held easily the longest of their closed-door sessions with the governor of the budget process this year so far.
A minimum wage increase remains under negotiation, as does as an extension of the so-called millionaires tax on high-income earners.
The tax code, a product a deal struck in December 2011, is due to expire in 2014, a re-election year for Cuomo and all 213 legislators.
“It is on the table. Clearly, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” Silver said. “We’re making a lot of progress toward an on-time budget and the details ultimately will be forthcoming when everything is agreed to.”
Cuomo proposed a $142.6 billion budget for the coming fiscal year, due to begin April 1.
The budget includes a $8.75 minimum wage, up from the current $7.25 wage. Assembly Democrats passed a measure that would increase it to $9, plus index future raises to the rate of inflation.
The coalition-led Senate of five Democrats and 30 Republicans approved language that was open to a minimum wage increase.
But Senate Republicans also want to include tax credits and cuts for businesses and middle-class families, proposing some $2 billion tax cuts.
“We’re discussing minimum wage,” Skelos said. “We’re also discussing tax credits and tax cuts for middle-income families.”
Sen. Marty Golden said on Friday that it was “very likely” a minimum wage increase would ultimately be included in the final spending plan.
Lawmakers are not scheduled to be in Albany past March 21 and are scheduled to return April 15 in order to accommodate the Passover and Easter holidays.
That means any agreement would have to be locked down in the next several days in order for bills to be printed and then appropriatedly aged on lawmakers’ desks.
Cuomo has said he does not believe a message of necessity would be needed to pass the budget by the end of this week.
“We’re trying to get it done by Thursday,” Skelos said.
For now the hold up in the budget process is unclear.
“It’s not a matter of sticking points,” Skelos said. “It’s technical printing and that type of thing. But I think we’re on track to having a budget this week.”
| Print article | This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on March 17, 2013 at 9:21 pm, and is filed under Andrew Cuomo, Dean Skelos, Sheldon Silver, State Budget. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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