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The New York Times/ - Politics, Sex, 30 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
State Budget for 2012 Sails Through
Albany
ALBANY — The State Legislature approved a $132.6
billion spending plan on Friday for the fiscal year that
begins Sunday, bringing to a punctual conclusion one
of the smoothest state budget negotiations at the
Capitol in years.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders
eagerly celebrated passage of the spending plan,
which slightly reduces over-all spending from the
current year, as evidence that Albany was finally
behaving responsibly after years of scandal and
disorder.
The voting on Friday marked the first time the
Legislature had approved a state spending plan with
more than 24 hours to spare since 1983 — when Mr.
Cuomo’s father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, passed
his first budget.
Saying that “at one time, this state government was a
joke,” Mr. Cuomo lavished praise on lawmakers at a
news conference in his ceremonial office, where the
backslapping among the assembled officials reached a
level often seen in sports locker rooms following
championship victories.
“It has been a dramatic and almost unbelievable
turnaround in 15 months,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We went
from a model of dysfunction to, I believe, a model of
function.”
The daytime approval of the budget followed a period
in which Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers had been
criticized for a series of major votes taken in the middle
of the night, and, at times, with little public notice.
This week, the governor and the leaders of the
Legislature said their actions reflected a newfound
comity in the capital.
“This was a good budget substantively, and it was a
good budget procedurally,” said Senator John A.
DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican and the
chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Mr. Cuomo and the leaders finished negotiating the
bills that made up the budget on Tuesday. That gave
them enough time to abide by a requirement in the
State Constitution, often sidestepped for major
legislation, that bills be made public for three days
before they are voted on, so that legislators and the
public can read the measures.
The Senate and the Assembly began debating most of
the bills that made up the budget on Friday morning.
Early in the afternoon, lawmakers crowded into Mr.
Cuomo’s ceremonial office to be photographed next to
the governor as he signed a portion of the budget into
law — even though neither the Senate nor the
Assembly had actually finished approving the entire
spending plan by that point.
The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan
Democrat, called the smooth budget process “a breath
of fresh air to all of us.”
“We have been able to mesh our thoughts with your
thoughts, and we produced what I think is a great
document here,” said Mr. Silver, turning toward Mr.
Cuomo and the Senate majority leader, Dean G.
Skelos, a Long Island Republican. Mr. Skelos added,
“We’re very proud of the way government is now
functioning in Albany.”
Both the Senate and the Assembly finished passing
the spending plan later in the afternoon. There were no
major dramatics as they debated the budget bills,
although some lawmakers in the minority caucuses in
both houses made clear that they were upset with their
limited role in the budget talks.
At the start of the celebratory news conference, one of
Mr. Cuomo’s top aides, Joseph Percoco, was caught
on camera instructing the Senate and Assembly
minority leaders — who were standing behind the
lectern near Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver —
to sit in the audience with the lawmakers on hand.
Senator Kevin S. Parker, a Democrat from Brooklyn,
described the budget process as “a joke” that blocked
the minority caucuses in both houses from having any
substantive role in negotiating the spending plan. “It
goes back to the old dysfunction that we saw,” Mr.
Parker said.
During the day, the minority caucuses in both houses
tried, and failed, to attach more than a dozen
amendments to the budget bills that were being
debated.
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