NY1.com

  31º

07/07/2010 06:57 PM

Unfinished Business Awaits State Senate

By: Erin Billups

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

As state lawmakers begin their summer hitting the campaign trail, the budget remains incomplete. NY1's Erin Billups filed the following report.

State lawmakers have passed all but one piece of their budget. The senate has yet to vote on its revenue bill, which will fund about a billion dollars worth of state spending.

"We passed most of the revenue within those emergency extenders and budget bills we already passed, so we’re not at the verge of closing down government," said State Senator Liz Krueger.

The revenue bill is just a fraction of the $135 billion spending plan, but still, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says it leaves the state vulnerable to potential risks.

"Technically at some point we may not have the money to back up all the spending commitments," DiNapoli said.

In order for the state to collect the revenue, pieces of the bill must be signed into law by October.

"I certainly hope that we are not playing this out through October. The optimistic side of me says we can get this done in the next couple of weeks," said Krueger.

While senate Democrats say they're holding up the process because the state needs to prepare for a possible billion dollar loss in federal medicaid funding, some see it simply as the failure of the fragile majority to get 32 votes to pass the bill.

"What the senate is trying to do, as best as I can tell, is to use the revenue piece of the budget to leverage negotiations with the Assembly to try and get some things that they want," said New York Public Interest Group Legislative Director Blair Horner.

Meanwhile, Krueger admits passing the revenue bill will be a heavy lift, but says what the public is seeing is an ideological fight over how to navigate through a fiscal crisis.

"They’re frustrated, I’m frustrated. They’re actually seeing real life struggles of democracy. I’m not sure we can smooth this all over and make this all easy, I don't think that's realistic" said Krueger.