Politico Reports: Cuomo plans Tuesday night budget presentation
By Jimmy Vielkind
01/17/2017 12:55 PM EDT
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo will publicly present his plan to spend roughly $150 billion in taxpayer money during a 7:30 p.m. session Tuesday with reporters at the Executive Mansion, his aides said.
It is a break from more than three decades of tradition that reflects both the sour atmosphere between the Democratic governor and members of the Legislature as well as what sources say is an administration that has been more harried than usual as it works toward the constitutional requirement of presenting a budget by the end of Tuesday.
The Democratic governor last week invited members of the legislative majorities for multiple private briefings at his brick Victorian mansion on Eagle Street. Republicans in the state Senate will be the first to learn the details during a 12:30 p.m. luncheon. Democrats in that chamber have been invited for a 4:30 p.m. briefing; Republicans in the Assembly will be briefed at 6 p.m. and Democrats, who dominate that chamber, will follow.
Members of the Legislative Correspondents Association, which for more than a century has represented the Capitol press corps, were offered a 2:30 p.m. briefing on the details of the budget on the condition that those details not be reported until the 7 o’clock hour. The press corps refused.
Several legislators — already angry with Cuomo over the demise of a special session that was expected to include a salary increase, as well as over the governor’s decision to drop the normal State of the State presentation in Albany — attacked his plans.
“I would have preferred that the Governor present his Budget proposal publicly to the taxpayers first,” Sen. Tom Croci, a Republican from Long Island, stated. “There’s nothing wrong with the governor giving legislators an opportunity to talk with him privately about their budget concerns, but it should be done after a public presentation and in accordance with his constitutional responsibilities.”
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, a Republican from suburban Troy, said he was disappointed that Cuomo’s plans reinforced a “pecking order” among legislators.
“The disrespect being shown to this Legislature is epic. When it’s a dog and pony show and you’re getting headlines, it’s all about the people,” McLaughlin said, referencing Cuomo’s recent State of the State tour. “But when it’s their money — nothing. If that was all about bringing it to the people, why, when the bill is presented on how you’re going to pay for this stuff, is that not open to the people? The hypocrisy is stunning.”
Good-government advocates had already been raising concerns about Cuomo’s moves. In previous years, Cuomo and his predecessors would schedule a mid-day public presentation of the budget and privately brief legislative leaders and the press in the hours before-hand. A 7:30 p.m. presentation is after the print deadline for many newspapers, and after early-evening broadcasts on radio and television.
“We think it’s important that the governor present to the public how he intends to spend their money,” Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group and a three-decade veteran of the Capitol, told Newsday this weekend. “It’s another indication of how poisonous the relationship is between the governor and the Legislature. It could be cause for concern in a meaningful way.”
Sources indicated that the roll-out — and the seemingly scattered planning that preceded it — is also a function of the mechanics of presenting a budget. One lobbyist said that Robert Mujica, who is in his first year as the administration’s budget director, had not yet signed off on Article VII policy bills as of late Friday. Another said state agencies, as of Saturday morning, were not aware of their budgets for the coming fiscal year.
The current fiscal year ends on March 31; a new budget must be adopted to continue the functions of state government thereafter.
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http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/01/cuomo-plans-evening-budget-presentation-108777