Albany Budget "Strike"
This doesn't bode well for an on-time budget.
At what was supposed to be a bipartisan, bicameral meeting in Albany just now to discuss the state budget, only Republicans showed up.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said that his conference would work through the weekend with Democrats to reconcile differences in Medicaid spending, school aide and other budget issues.
If only everybody would come to the table.
One senator, Thomas Libous of the Southern tier said "the law is being broken," because Democrats weren't participating in the meeting.
Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco referred to it a "strike against openness and transparency."
Ten days until deadline.
-- Azi Paybarah
It wasn't "supposed to be" anything. Bruno called it on his own in an sad attempt to distract the press from the fact that he and the Senate Majority have walked away from the agreement on avails and now want to pretend that the billions they want to add to the budget won't cost anything.
You can't have real budget discussion under those circumstances.
When Joe gets real, the discussions can get underway. Until then, he's just grandstanding.
Speaking of grandstanding, it's nice to see Bruno's hanging out with a pro, Jimmy (where's the camera?) Tedisco. Joe can get lots of pointers from that dork.